OU Childrens Hospital- Our Experience

The new blogger is pretty neat... it tells me how people get to my blog.  It shows me from which blogs people come from, how many times, etc.  It also shows me what people put into google search and end up at my blog.  Almost daily, there is a search for "ou childrens hospital" or "ou childrens hospital dr. letton".

Whenever I see that someone has searched for that, I can not help but feel like they must be walking through a darker valley in their life, as far as their child/ren go.  I know when I searched for information about NICU's and when I searched for information about surgeons.. I know where my mind was.  I know where my emotions were.

So when I see that someone is searching for that, it makes my heart sad.  But then I think about our story and how it is filled with such HOPE and JOY.  And really Childrens and Dr. Letton are a HUGE part of our story.

So my next step was to search for those things myself to see which blog was brought up.  The blog that it pulls up was the blog after Craig and I went for our tour of Childrens.  That was a hard day for me.  I left an emotional mess.  It doesnt focus on all of the WONDERFUL things that happened to us while we were there..

So, I feel like I need to write this blog.  I know the majority of you that will read this blog, know our story.  The majority of you that read this blog, I consider a part of McKinley's success story as well.  But, I want to use this specific blog entry specifically for those parents who are walking a road that is unknown.  That is scary.  That is sad.

When our daughter was diagnosed with a rare abdominal abnormality, that happens in 1 in every 10,000 pregnancies, we were overwhelmed.  At the beginning of our journey, we thought we had the option of 2 hospitals in town to deliver McKinley.  As we continued down the road with McKinley, it was very clear to everyone that Childrens was the best place for McKinley to start her journey.

We were also faced with the decision that no parent wants to be faced with.. choosing a doctor that will ultimately "be a lifesaver".  Although it was an extremely overwhelming decision, we were pretty confident early on who we wanted to take care of our daughter.  Dr. Robert Letton took INCREDIBLE care of one of my dear friend's daughter when she was born with CF.  After speaking with Dr. Letton ourselves, Craig and I had an indescribable peace that this man was who we wanted to operate on our daughter.

Let me stop here and say, Craig and I believe in the power of prayer.  We believed, that ultimately our God knew exactly how McKinley's story would end.  We prayed for complete healing.  We did not know how that would look.  We didnt know if it would happen miraculously in the womb, through surgery, or if the ultimate healing would be Him choosing to bring McKinley to her heavenly home.  But what we did know was that our job was to make sure that we had the best care waiting for McKinley when she made her debut in OKC.

Now that we are almost a year (holy cow!) removed from her debut, I can tell you WITHOUT A DOUBT, that we had hands down the best medical care for our daughter.

Sure, we had one nurse who I am guessing had an "off" day that caused our family ALOT of stress.. but other than that, we had nurses who were WISE and GENTLE and KIND and LOVING.


I do not wish for anyone to have to go through what we did... but if you are looking for a surgeon to take care of your child.. do not for one single second, second guess your decision to choose Dr. Letton.  He. Is. AMAZING.  When I see him now, I dont even know how to act.  How do you act towards a man, that helped heal your daughter.  Who through his wisdom and steady hands was not only able to put her organs back into her body, but was able to craft her the most adorable belly button ever.

We were not guaranteed that we would get to bring our daughter home with us.  But I believe that God used Dr. Letton and his team to heal our baby girl.

If you are reading this, because you are needing care for your child... I am sorry.  My heart hurts for you.  But please know that choosing OU and choosing Dr. Letton should relieve alittle of your stress.  Your baby will be in good hands.

I will FOREVER be grateful for that man.