Beech Tree News Network

Growing Like a Flower- Madalyn Crafton
When a woman is pregnant, it’s supposed to be the happiest time of her life; bringing new life into this world, feeling that sweet baby move inside of you, knowing it’s nothing but a miracle from God that this precious child could grow into a beautiful baby. You begin preparing for a complete life changing event. Buying baby supplies, reading books on how to be the best mommy but sometimes, they just can’t prepare themselves for the “unexpected.” Books don’t cover that, and they only tell you the good side of pregnancy and childbirth. Up until week 28, Destiny Gray thought her pregnancy was just like any other normal pregnancy, but after that 28th week, she knew things were going to be a little different for her and her daughter.
When measuring the baby and doing normal growth test and blood flow test, Destiny’s regular obstetrician became somewhat concerned that the baby wasn’t growing the way she should be for the current trimester of her pregnancy. Not terribly alarmed, but from that point on, it was decided that they should do a weekly ultrasound to stay on top of the pregnancy and the baby’s growth.

Because of the baby’s kidney’s being enlarged during one of the ultrasounds, Destiny’s regular ob/gyn decided to send her to a high-risk doctor for further evaluation. When she arrived, and testing was done, the high-risk doctors didn’t believe there was anything to be alarmed of; they assured Destiny that her baby girl was “just small.” They said she would weigh 2 pounds and 15 ounces. But no other concerns came forth that day.
At week 35, Destiny was told, during a visit to the high-risk doctor, that her placenta was not producing enough blood for the baby, so they needed to get her over to labor and delivery and induce her labor and bring her beautiful baby girl into the world before things get bad. The exact words of the doctor “we need to get this baby out.” They induced her, and she was in labor from 2:00 in the afternoon of January 21, 2014, until 9:00 the following morning. Finally, it was decided an emergency C section was going to have to be performed at this time. Even though Destiny’s pregnancy was 35 weeks, her baby girl, Maddy, was a 28-week baby, because she never grew any after 28 weeks and she came out weighing exactly what was predicted; 2 pounds and 15 ounces. She was born at 9:08 a.m on January 22, 2014.

Maddy’s grandmother, Alisha Lowhorn, was with her daughter Destiny during the time I spent with her listening to Maddy’s story. Alisha said when she asked the doctor when Maddy was born if she was going to be “okay,” the doctor said to her “she’s under the light, and she will grow like a little flower.”  And oh my, what a beautiful flower she is blossoming into.
When tiny little Maddy entered this world, even though she was only 2 pounds, 15 oz, she only had to stay on a CPAP machine for one day. You must know by that; this little angel was going to be a fighter! A few days after she was born, the doctors discovered that Maddy’s sugar was high. After multiple testing at Bowling Green, they couldn’t conclude what was making her sugar so high, so they decided Monroe Carell Children’s Hospital at Nashville was the best place for her to get the care she needed. 
While there, until she was three months old, she had to have five blood transfusions and had begun having major sugar problems. They diagnosed her with neonatal diabetes.  Since I know little about diabetes, I researched this on diabetes.org and found “neonatal diabetes is a form of diabetes that is diagnosed at the age of nine months. It’s a different type of diabetes than the more common Type 1 diabetes as it’s not an autoimmune condition (where the body has destroyed its insulin-producing cells.” There were times that Maddy’s sugar would go over 800. Maddy was on an insulin pump, and they still had difficulty regulating her sugar.

About three months home, Maddy finally got to come home and stay. Still with no diagnosis of why her sugar was going crazy at times. Momma’s work was going to be kicking in now because she had to check her sugar every three hours and give her insulin shots every 6 hours. At this time, the doctors still had not given Destiny a diagnosis of anything that could be causing Maddy to have neonatal diabetes. But at five months old, Maddy no longer had sugar problems. It seemed the nightmare just ended without reason. But this can come back when she’s a teenager, but at this time, she is off of insulin and no more blood sugar problems. 
When I asked Destiny what the doctors were saying about Maddy and why she might be so little and not able to be mobile, she said the only thing they kept telling her was that she was about two weeks behind most kids and there was no medical condition diagnosed at this time. As you can imagine, this was very disturbing to Destiny because she needed answers to why her beautiful daughter was not growing.  Testing continued for quite some time, but no answers were resulting from any of those. No doctors could seem to figure out what was (or wasn’t) going on. Finally, when Maddy was almost a year and a half, they began genetic testing. In April of 2016, she was diagnosed with UniParental Chromozone 6.
Ok, if you’re like me after hearing that, you’re shaking your head going “What”? I had never heard of this and of course, had to ask. This disease is caused by getting both chromosomes from her daddy instead of one from each parent. Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each cell, divided into 23 pairs. Two copies of chromosome 6, one copy inherited from each parent, form one of the pairs There is not much at all known about this disorder except that it is evidentially very rare. They do now say that having this genetic disorder is what caused all of Maddy’s sugar problems at birth.

I asked Destiny if they know anyone else that has children with this disorder. She said they have found and been in contact with a few people that do have children with this disorder, but they are very few and far in between. She told me that from talking to them, she’s learned that most of the other children have weighed a lot more than Maddy at birth and are a little behind but they are doing well. She said she doesn’t know if that’s why Maddy is not doing as much because she was so little or what.
Maddy has also been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. She can only sit up for a few moments, she doesn’t walk but has a walker to help her stand. 20 pounds and almost three years old now, Maddy has learned to hold her bottle and momma says she eats everything she wants.  I talked to Destiny about what they are saying about any prognosis as far as a normal life for Maddy, but at this time they don’t have any answers to these questions.
I just want to let Destiny know how much I appreciate her sharing this remarkable story of her little flower. I have been friends with Destiny’s mother, Alisha for over a year on Facebook and we’ve kept in touch about Maddy and her diagnosis, and I was so honored to finally get the opportunity to hear her beautiful story. Hopefully, I can continue to keep everyone updated on the growth of this gorgeous flower God so graciously planted in the arms of Destiny.

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About Debby:
In 2014, I felt a calling from God to change the course of my photography. Here is a little info on Today's Miracle Photography:

Memories last forever; I have a deep passion for photography and writing, and have had for many years. I wanted to tie these two together and use my passion for the glory of God. When our granddaughter Lexi (not by blood) was born, and shortly passed, I felt God wanted me to share her story, from that point on, I've felt that calling. To reach out to people that have had miracles performed in their lives, to bring awareness to terminally ill people, people that have lost loved ones, people that struggle with addictions, just various aspects of life that God works miracles in.
God works miracles everyday, share yours with me and lets share it with the world. I believe these people I photo shoot and write about need prayer and the best way to start a prayer chain and praise God, is with a big group of people that will share all over the world. No miracle is to great or small to praise God for.

I have a page on Facebook named Today's Miracle Photography, please follow me there to capture these incredible people's story's and photos as well.

Debby Lanham