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~COLEBY BRYSTAL MYERS~
Tracy and I found out we were pregnant on April 13, 1998. We were so excited, this would be our first born child. Tracy said she would be a girl from the day I told him we were expecting. We started our Drs. visits, and the pregnancy was a hard one, but that is a different story. On July 1st we had our first ultrasound, and he was right, we were expecting a girl, her due date was Dec. 11, 1998.
From about 24 weeks of pregnancy I was in pre term labor, and in and out of the hospital. I was hospitalized on Mon. Oct. 26. and the labor could not be stopped. Our daughter Coleby Brystal Myers was born into this world at 5:15am October 28, 1998. I only got a glimpse of her as they took her to the respiratory specialists that were waiting for her. She was 7 weeks early and weighed a mere 4 lbs. I heard her cry, the sweetest song I have ever heard. They brought her to my room for a good look at my baby before they transferred her to a hospital over an hour away. Our little girl was really sick, she had lots of problems they told us. After knowing I was okay, Tracy and his mother Shirley went to the hospital where Coleby was. She needed someone. I couldn't stand the thought of her being alone. The midwife finally came in to see me and I demanded to be released to go be with Coleby. She needed her mother. Her mother, that is me, and I had to be there with her. So about 5 hours after she was born, with several stitches I walked out of the hospital. My mother drove me to my baby over an hour away. She was so tiny. They were telling us the truth, she had lots of problems. She had a stomach blockage, that would have to be surgically removed. Her skin would blister to the touch. Later we found out she had a genetic skin disease (epidermolysis bullosa) EB for short. Her lungs the one thing we were worried about before her birth were doing just fine. All we could do was look at her in the incubator, and tell her that we were there and we loved her very much. The next morning she was transferred to another hospital to see the surgeon. They took her to surgery that night at 36 hrs old. She came back from surgery and was doing really good. Our hopes were high. We got to see her open her eyes, hear her cry, and see her beautiful smile. When she was 6 days old we got to hold her in our arms. Oh what a day. My child, my daughter, the greatest blessing of my life, there in my arms. We were on cloud nine. She loved being held and rocked. As I held her in my arms I could feel her tiny body taking every breath. In, out, in, out, that was so wonderful. That evening there were more tests that showed she had another stomach blockage. She still had not had a bowel movement. We were so worried. Yes, she was doing good at this point, but I knew she was not strong enough for another surgery. They brought her back from surgery, she was so pale, Everything just went down hill from here. She had an IV in her umbilical cord. It spasmed and she lost blood circulation to her right leg. It would have to be amputated if she pulled though. This was the only IV they could keep in because of her being so tiny. She had now lost down to 3 lbs. Because of no IV access for so long her kidneys shut down. Then finally they got what is called a pick line in. They tried everything to get her kidneys to start again. We knew it was time to let her go. We spoke with the Dr. He told us that if we left her on life support that she would have a heart attack and die by the end of the day. Her potassium level was rising in her blood because of no kidney function. We talked it over, we did not want her to suffer a heart attack. She had already been thorough so much. She had fought so hard for the ten days we had together. We brought in the family. We all held and loved on her. My mother, Tracy's mother, his sister, Tracy and I took turns holding her. When Tracy had her in his arms he told the DR. to take out the tube. He wanted to do this, he said I got to carry her inside me for those 7 months, he wanted to do this for her. They took us to another room, I guess a room used for this type of thing. Tracy rocked her and we told her to go Heaven. Jesus would be waiting for her, and to go find her Papaws they would take care of her until we got there. The next few minutes are ones I will never forget. As Tracy sat there in the rocking chair, rocking our child as she took her last breaths. I felt so much comfort it is unreal. We were surrounded by family. Tracy's brother got to the hospital just minutes before Coleby was gone ( he had traveled from FL) Her heart slowed as we sang to her. I guess it had gotten down to about 35 beats a minute when Tracy looked to Randy. (His bother in law, also the pastor who married us) He said "Randy pray her into Heaven" As he was saying this prayer it was like something had surrounded us. There was a presence in the room. As if someone was holding me. I have never before had this feeling. I knew that our daughter was going to a better place, and she would be waiting for us. As her heart rate got even slower, the smile got bigger on our daughter's face. I knew she was not afraid. Then 35 minutes after she was taken off life support on November 7, 1998 at 3:59pm, our daughter, Coleby Brystal Myers was born into Paradise. She will never hurt again, she is happy and safe in the Savior's Arms. I have no doubt in my mind that there were Angels in the room with us that day, waiting for the order to take one of God's littlest one's home with them. I know they comforted her as well as us. The hope of seeing her again one day is the only thing that keeps us from falling apart. We laid Coleby to rest on November 10, 1998. Tracy and I were married 2 years on November 9th. We often hear people say they want the best for their children, well we know that Coleby has the very best of everything. Jesus died on Calvary's Cross so that would not only be available for Coleby, but for all of us and we are so thankful. The skin disease (EB) she was diagnosed with is a genetic disease. We are facing a 25% chance of this happening again because of the genes we carry. We do have the 75% chance of a healthy baby. We know nothing is too hard for our God. We want children so badly. We have put our lives and situation in God's hands. We know we just have to stand on our faith and trust in him. What ever he sees fit for our lives we just pray for strength to do the best we can to please him. we know he will do what is best for his people. He will take care of us. Thank you for reading about our "Coleby". She is our greatest blessing and we are so thankful for those 10 days.
This entire page authored by ~Jayme Myers~ The song "Amazing Grace" that is now playing, was also sung at Coleby's funeral.
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