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.