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A baby in need pt 5

Hey all,

Guess what, the baby is back home as of yesterday! The stitches are being taken out today after a checkup from the cardiologist. Thanks for all the support.

For now,

Lauri

a baby in need pt4 (RECOVERY)

Hey all,

Great news, my friends and their baby should be back home early next week! She told me that they were worried about the poor little guy for a few days. He wasn't sleeping or eating, but as of last night he made a big turn around and has been moved up one floor (graduation!). They even told them that the baby may be allowed to spend this weekend in the Ronald McDonald house with them and then they will be allowed to board a plane early next week. Thanks for all the prayer.

For now,

Lauri

a baby in need pt 3

As most of you know, my friend's baby boy underwent heart surgery early this past week and is in recovery. I spoke to her yesterday and she said recovery was going fine he has even been pulled off the pacemaker, although they had a scare Friday. A doctor who was doing a regular exam said that there was some excess fluid near the heart, don't ask me exacts as to what the fluid was trapped in I can't remember. He told her that they would have to drain the fluid and that it was a simple procedure that would take no longer than 15 minutes. As she sat in the N.I.C.U. watching the doctor and assistant. 15 minutes turned into 30 and before she knew it other parents were being rushed out of the N.I.C.U. as the doctor and nurse ran frantically around the room. The surgeon was called back in, who by the way rushed into the N.I.C.U. when called. All the while no one was telling my friend what was going on with the baby, the doctors asked her to step out of the room with the other parents. She said she heard the surgeon yelling at the other doctor through the door (Which was undecipherable for her). 2 hours later they came out of the room to explain that, when they had gone to drain the fluid out during this simple procedure, they had punctured the baby's heart and had to do an emergency surgery to open the baby's chest back up and close the new hole caused by the simple procedure. She has since told me that the baby is recovering fine, and that there was no need to be put back on the pacemaker as to whether or not he is still on the respirator I don't know but his heart is still beating strong. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers to keep from other accidents or infection. Hopefully all else will go well.

For now,

Lauri

A baby in need pt2

Hello all,

UPDATE Aug 16 '06

As I said last night the baby is out of surgery, He has been hooked up to a temporary pace maker and a respirator due to swelling of the heart (which we have been informed is normal after surgery). Both mom and Dad sound relieved. The surgeon informed them that they closed two large holes (one in the upper chamber, and one in the lower) that were much larger than was usual for a heart that size. Thanks for all the prayer and please keep it up to ensure that the little one won't get an infection during recovery. If all goes well, they will be coming home in a week (at the earliest) to recover either in home or if there is still need of hospital help, they will be sent back to the original hospital the diagnosis was made at here so they can be near family and home. Again, thank you so much for the support. If anything else happens I will let you know.

LAURI

UPDATE Aug 15 '06

The baby is out of surgery. We still haven't heard from the surgeon yet as to whether or not they will have to do anything else. I will update you as soon as I find out.

UPDATE

Due to other surgeries running late, the baby's surgery has been moved to the first thing tomorrow morning 8-15-06.

Lauri

Today is the big day, baby boy is going in for surgery at 12:00 PM. Keep him in your thoughts and I will update this post as soon as I hear how it went.

Lauri

Baby in need

UPDATE

Aug 13 '06

I received a phone call this evening, a decision was made. My friend and baby were sent off to Northern California, the operation was set for Tuesday, but due to a new opening they have moved the baby's surgery up to tomorrow at 12:00 pm. Because of the move up in schedule, daddy won't be able to see baby before the surgery. His plane will arrive in time for the surgery to have already been started. Please, if you are praying for him thank you and keep it up and if you are going to leave a comment please do so now. Thank you so much for your time.

UPDATE

Aug. 11 '06,

The doctors have decided to do the surgery, now we are waiting to find out where. Here is the new dilemma, we are hoping for Pitts-Burg because my friend's mom lives there and they would have a place to stay, however, their insurance doesn't want to pay for the surgery to be preformed out there.  If they are to be sent out to California their insurance will cover the surgery but will only cover for one of them to go and stay at the Ronald McDonald house, Now I know that there may be a few people out there who may find it logical for Daddy to stay back here and work to pay the bills but I want you to take that logical thought and throw it out of your mind for a second and put yourself in their shoes, if this was your child and you decided that the bills were more important than being there with your child knowing that there is a possibility of fatality, how would you feel if something did happen and you never got to say goodbye to your baby, because of a few bills. I know that I would not be able to live with myself, how 'bout you? Please keep this in mind and I'll keep you updated.

Hello,

I have been debating writing about this for several days now, as this is about a very close friend of mine and is hard to talk about. As any of you out there may have noticed I seem to have a lot of time on my hands, and the reason for that is that I have problems with pre-term labor and spend a lot of time at home, however my problems of late are dwarfed by those of a close friend of mine's and I'm looking for ideas to help her.

You see she just had her first baby a little over a week and a half ago. She had to be induced as she was almost 2 weeks over due. 36 or so hours after the induction her little boy was born. I even got to be there with her when she had the baby. Everything seemed to be going fine until this past Sunday, the baby started to breathe hard (he was almost  panting) and began to wheeze. She took him in to the hospital as any concerned parent would and should. The doctors hit her and her fiance with some hard news, the baby's oxygen level down to 80%, his heart is engorged compressing his lungs, and he also has 3 small holes in his heart which were supposed to close up shortly after birth. Basically they told her that the baby has 3 congenital heart problems going at once and they said he is just too little to handle it all so they had to hook him up to a million and one machines and is now a resident of the N.I.C.U. until they can find the right medication to bring his oxygen back up and of course they are looking for a way to repair his heart. Of course she calls me balling her eyes out and we are crying together and asking anyone who prays to pray until they are blue in the face.

I'm happy to say that two days later she informed me that the baby's oxygen levels are now up into the early 90% area thanks to medication, however, the cardiologist has decided to keep the baby for observation to decide whether they should opt for heart surgery or not. Without the surgery they told her that something so simple as a cold could kill the baby, with the surgery the baby would have a better chance, but they would obviously would have to preform open heart surgery on him and that comes with risks also. The doctor is leaning towards surgery and so is my friend though she'd rather not have anyone poking him with a needle let alone preforming surgery (clearly understandable). The other problem is that if the surgery is what they do, they want to ship the baby off to California or Pitts burg, which would mean that they would have the problem of affording their rent here and paying to stay out where ever they are sent to for however long it takes. 

If anyone has any constructive suggestions or just wants to let the family know they have support, please feel free to add a comment. Thanks.

Lauri