So, we got a new computer! I am going to try to keep everyone updated now. Where do i even begin? I will start with the newest member of our family. We had a beautiful little girl on October 13, 2009. Edynn (Eden) McKinley Breedlove. She came a little early (4weeks) but still managed to be 8 lbs 15 oz. I am kinda glad that she came early. Everything seemed fine after delivery so she got to go to postpartum room with me, which was a relief after our ordeal with Jaxson as a newborn.
About 18 hrs after she was born the nurse came in to do an assessment and thought she was working a little too hard to breathe. So they took her to the nicu and once again we wonder what now? Come to find out she had broken her collar bone during delivery and her lungs were not quite developed. The nurses kept referring to everything has problems that are common in preemies, but we had a very hard time calling her a preemie at almost 9 pounds. She had what was called "stridor" when she breathed. It is a really squeakiness that would get worse when she cried or ate. They were concernedd that there was something blocking her airway causing this. So, here we go again.
After many test and 8 days later, we were told that they thought she had tracheamalasia. it is where the trachea and larynx is "floppy". They put her on thickened breast milk and heart monitor and told us we could take her home. We would have to take her to Indianapolis to an ENT to confirm the diagnosis with a scope. Just what we needed another doctor to see in Indianapolis. at least Jaxson already sees one down there that we were comfortable taking her to. So, at 8 days old we got to take her home.
We here home for 4 days and she began running a fever. We took her to the ER and they many test. Since she was only 12 days old they decided that they would admit her back to their nicu. They immediately put her on antibiotics and antivirals for precautions. They would do so until her blood cultures and spinal tap came back. they fever finally broke and thought as long as cultures came back fine, we would get to go home again. WRONG! Her blood cultures came back as positive growth. This would mean they would have to put a picc line in and do 10 to 14 days of antibiotics. We just wanted to take her home and be a normal, happy family.
The hospital policy was to then send the cultures out to see exactly what bug it was. Meanwhile they put a picc line in and continued the antibiotics. on day 5 of treatment they got results back from the microbiology place, and the had found that the bacteria that grew was just from contamination of the blood from where the nurse drew it. NICE! but the doctors decided that since the picc was already in they would finish a 7 day treatment then we could go home. So finally, jsut shy of being three weeks old she was home!
We then made the trip to Indianapolis to the ENT where he did a scope and thought it was not tracheamalasia, it was just a severe case of reflux (common in preemies). So the wanted to continue thickening the breast milk and put her on Zantac. Which once again meant that I could not breast feed her either.
The beginning of December she a very bad cold(from Jaxson) and was put in the hospital, to later find out that it was RSV. They did breathing treatments and Oxygen for a couple days and we were home again. She has been good since then. She still constantly spits up and his quite the fussy baby, but she sleeps better than Jaxson ever did. I will put her down about 8 pm and she does make a peep till about 6or 7 when she wakes up for a bottle then goes back to sleep for a couple more hours. It is so nice to be able to sleep!
An update on Jaxson: He is a BRAT!!! No, he is doing great being a big brother. Sometimes he is a little more help than I need. As for his health: it really has been quite well. Saw the cardiologist in December and said the artery was narrowing and would probably need replaced with the year. The surgeon that does is bowels is at a standstill and is not sure what to do now. He is sending us to a doctor at Cincinatti Childrens Hospital, who can hopefully give us a few more options. Still not promising that we will ever potty train.
When he turned 3 he transferred out of First steps for physical and speech therapy, but he did not qualify for developmental preschool through the school system. they thought he had progressed enough to be a level with kids his age. That was great news! He is currently going to preschool and a lady around here. She has preschool at her house just one day a week, all day. He was went for a few weeks now and seems to love it. She says he gets a little teary sometimes and wants mommy, but overall for his age is doing good.
Other family news: we are still living in her our house just outside of Delphi and Steve is still working at Carroll High School. I stay at home and enjoy the kids. We are on the go a lot but they seem to like it that way. I have to go to Lafayette 3 days a week to pick Mom up from dialysis, so I try to do all of my running on those days.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday, March 23, 2009
Getting Started
This is all new to me but I am going to give it a shot.
I have had a very interesting life since high school and I would love to catch up with many friends that have lost touched. After graduating in 2002 from Lewis Cass, I went on to study nursing at St. Elizabeth School of nursing. After two years I met my now husband, Steven Breedlove. He graduated from Maconaquah High School in 2003. One of my good friends from high school, Stephanie Fuller Angus, suggested that I meet a friend of her now husband, Jeff Angus. We set up to meet one night. After that night I was not sure if he was the one, but after a couple of hours on the phone a few nights later, I had made my mind up. I decided to move back home (to be closer to Steven)and commute to school everyday for classes. This went on for a few months until one day I flipped my car on the way to Lafayette. That same week my niece was born in Indianapolis 8 weeks early and was in intensive care and my grandmother died. With all the events of that week. I back off on the nursing and thought that I wanted to pursue another career.
After trying some things out I realized that nursing was for me. In the meanwhile Steven and I became engaged and married on May 30, 2005. He finished his construction technology degree at Ivy Tech and I worked as an office manager at a psychiatric office. In 2006 I decided that I wanted to continue my education again as a nursing student. This time enrolling at Ivy Tech to complete their registered nursing program. After a semester there, I learned that I was pregnant with our son Jaxson. Planning on just taking a semester off and returning the next January was the plan, but Jax had other plans for us. The pregnancy was rough for us, but we made it through. I had high blood pressure from the time of my first prenatal visit. I was put on bed rest at 30 weeks to try to prevent preeclampsia.
Other than that we were expecting a healthy baby upon delivery. But, we had another thing coming! Jaxson was taken to the NICU right away because he was blue and having a difficult time keeping his oxygen saturations up. They came back to tell us while I was still in recovery that they heard a heart murmur when doing his neo exam. They had to place him on a ventilator and sedate him so that his heart did not have to work as hard. After doing an echo of his heart, they decided that it would be best if they transferred him to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. So at 8 hours old that is what they did. Since my blood pressure was still high after delivery I had to stay the night in Lafayette while my husband went with Jaxson to Indy. That was the worst and longest night of my life. Once getting to Indy they found many other birth defects as well. It seemed like every time I talked to my husband, he had more bad news for me. The next day I was released from the hospital and rushed down to Indy to be with Steven and Jaxson.
Jaxson was diagnosed with VACTERAL Association. It is a series of midline defects that was caused by a duplication of the long arm of his 22nd chromosome. The V stands for Vertebral abnormalities. Jaxson is missing 3 halves of vertebrae in his lumbar spine. The A stands for Anal deformities. Jaxson was born with out an anus. At 3 days old he under went surgery to place a colostomy that he had till 13 months when they were able to make an anus and pull his rectum down. We are still not sure if he will have full bowel function or may have to go back to a colostomy. The C stands for Cardiac. He has what is called Tetrology of Fallot. Their was multiple defects in his heart. His right pulmonary artery was very small and he had a large hole in the bottom chamber. At six days old he had open heart surgery where they place a shunt to allow blood flow to both sides of the heart. Later at 7 months he had open heart once more to fix the the hole and place a conduit in for his pulmonary artery. We have to see a cardiologist every 3 to 6 months where they do an echo to check blood flow. He will have to have a heart surgery to replace to conduit every 4 to 5 years until he is full grown and then every 10 years after that. The TE stands for trachea-esophageal fistula that Jaxson did not have thankfully. The R stands for Renal abnormalities. Jaxson's kidneys did not separate and are in the shape of a horseshoe. He technically has one kidney, but they function as two separate kidneys. This has not caused any problems to yet and they are hopeful that they will not. Lastly the L stands for Limbs, which Jaxson also has not limb deformities. He also had a cleft palate that was repaired when he was 17 months.
He receives physical and speech therapy through first steps, but he has graduated to only 2 times a month for both of them. he is doing great now, and you wouldn't know anything is wrong with him by just looking at him. He runs, plays, and causes trouble like any other 2 year old his age. Oh yeah, he was born on December 14, 2006. I still have not been able to return to my nursing school, but hopefully someday. I am content right now staying at home with him and enjoying watching him grow up so fast.
We also have some exciting , but scary news. We are going to have another bundle of joy in November. This one was not exactly planned, but gladly welcomed. It is scary for us after going through all that with Jaxson, but the doctors will do more ultrasounds and more tests to prepare us if something may be wrong. Please stay tuned to hear more of our crazy life here in Delphi, Indiana.
I have had a very interesting life since high school and I would love to catch up with many friends that have lost touched. After graduating in 2002 from Lewis Cass, I went on to study nursing at St. Elizabeth School of nursing. After two years I met my now husband, Steven Breedlove. He graduated from Maconaquah High School in 2003. One of my good friends from high school, Stephanie Fuller Angus, suggested that I meet a friend of her now husband, Jeff Angus. We set up to meet one night. After that night I was not sure if he was the one, but after a couple of hours on the phone a few nights later, I had made my mind up. I decided to move back home (to be closer to Steven)and commute to school everyday for classes. This went on for a few months until one day I flipped my car on the way to Lafayette. That same week my niece was born in Indianapolis 8 weeks early and was in intensive care and my grandmother died. With all the events of that week. I back off on the nursing and thought that I wanted to pursue another career.
After trying some things out I realized that nursing was for me. In the meanwhile Steven and I became engaged and married on May 30, 2005. He finished his construction technology degree at Ivy Tech and I worked as an office manager at a psychiatric office. In 2006 I decided that I wanted to continue my education again as a nursing student. This time enrolling at Ivy Tech to complete their registered nursing program. After a semester there, I learned that I was pregnant with our son Jaxson. Planning on just taking a semester off and returning the next January was the plan, but Jax had other plans for us. The pregnancy was rough for us, but we made it through. I had high blood pressure from the time of my first prenatal visit. I was put on bed rest at 30 weeks to try to prevent preeclampsia.
Other than that we were expecting a healthy baby upon delivery. But, we had another thing coming! Jaxson was taken to the NICU right away because he was blue and having a difficult time keeping his oxygen saturations up. They came back to tell us while I was still in recovery that they heard a heart murmur when doing his neo exam. They had to place him on a ventilator and sedate him so that his heart did not have to work as hard. After doing an echo of his heart, they decided that it would be best if they transferred him to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. So at 8 hours old that is what they did. Since my blood pressure was still high after delivery I had to stay the night in Lafayette while my husband went with Jaxson to Indy. That was the worst and longest night of my life. Once getting to Indy they found many other birth defects as well. It seemed like every time I talked to my husband, he had more bad news for me. The next day I was released from the hospital and rushed down to Indy to be with Steven and Jaxson.
Jaxson was diagnosed with VACTERAL Association. It is a series of midline defects that was caused by a duplication of the long arm of his 22nd chromosome. The V stands for Vertebral abnormalities. Jaxson is missing 3 halves of vertebrae in his lumbar spine. The A stands for Anal deformities. Jaxson was born with out an anus. At 3 days old he under went surgery to place a colostomy that he had till 13 months when they were able to make an anus and pull his rectum down. We are still not sure if he will have full bowel function or may have to go back to a colostomy. The C stands for Cardiac. He has what is called Tetrology of Fallot. Their was multiple defects in his heart. His right pulmonary artery was very small and he had a large hole in the bottom chamber. At six days old he had open heart surgery where they place a shunt to allow blood flow to both sides of the heart. Later at 7 months he had open heart once more to fix the the hole and place a conduit in for his pulmonary artery. We have to see a cardiologist every 3 to 6 months where they do an echo to check blood flow. He will have to have a heart surgery to replace to conduit every 4 to 5 years until he is full grown and then every 10 years after that. The TE stands for trachea-esophageal fistula that Jaxson did not have thankfully. The R stands for Renal abnormalities. Jaxson's kidneys did not separate and are in the shape of a horseshoe. He technically has one kidney, but they function as two separate kidneys. This has not caused any problems to yet and they are hopeful that they will not. Lastly the L stands for Limbs, which Jaxson also has not limb deformities. He also had a cleft palate that was repaired when he was 17 months.
He receives physical and speech therapy through first steps, but he has graduated to only 2 times a month for both of them. he is doing great now, and you wouldn't know anything is wrong with him by just looking at him. He runs, plays, and causes trouble like any other 2 year old his age. Oh yeah, he was born on December 14, 2006. I still have not been able to return to my nursing school, but hopefully someday. I am content right now staying at home with him and enjoying watching him grow up so fast.
We also have some exciting , but scary news. We are going to have another bundle of joy in November. This one was not exactly planned, but gladly welcomed. It is scary for us after going through all that with Jaxson, but the doctors will do more ultrasounds and more tests to prepare us if something may be wrong. Please stay tuned to hear more of our crazy life here in Delphi, Indiana.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
