Support for Dawson Pfister & Family
Donation protected
Friends and family of Brock and Alyssa Pfister have set up this page in response to the many people expressing their desire to show support to the Pfister family.
All money raised will go directly to the Pfister family to help cover medical expenses not covered by insurance such as deductibles, co-insurance and a variety of unexpected expenses a family incurs when a precious loved one is in the hospital for an extended period.
Dawson's journey by Alyssa and Brock:
Thank you in advance for reading our story.
Dawson entered the world a little earlier than we expected at 33wks & 6 days old! From the very beginning of the pregnancy we knew that our little man would be born with his intestines and liver, contained in a sac, on the outside of his tummy (a defect known as Omphalocele). We like to think of him as our little “O” warrior. We had hoped that he would make it to our scheduled 38 weeks, but clearly he was ready to get out of there! Dawson was born weighing just 4lbs and 10 oz. Following a night of testing and monitoring, our surgeon told us he believed the defect was small enough to be pushed back in through surgery, and decided it would be best to operate the very next day. The surgery was unsuccessful, as there was just no room in his tiny belly to put it all back. Poor Dawson did not handle the surgery very well and ended up needing to have 3 blood transfusions. The following days were very trying for our entire family as we waited to see how he would respond. In order to keep him from moving around too much, the doctors decided to leave him on a paralytic for 5 days straight. Nothing can prepare you to see your baby laying in his bed lifeless for that many days. Luckily he pulled through, and began to show improvement. The doctors took him off the paralytic, and allowed him to begin moving around again. The first time he opened his eyes almost melted our hearts.
The following week the surgeon felt Dawson was doing well enough to attempt to reduce his defect again. For the most part, he tolerated the second surgery pretty well (no transfusions), and recovered fairly quickly. When Dawson came back from surgery he came back with a gore-tex patch stitched over his omphalocele and into his muscle. The stitching looked remarkably like a baseball, only now that it has been awhile it looks pretty gross! We spent the following days learning to change his diaper, clean his mouth, and other small tasks to give us a little sense of normalcy. We love our time getting to care for little Dawson!
This past weekend we have had many new and exciting things happen! Dawson is now off of his oscillator and back on a regular ventilator, and they have started to feed him milk through a tube, which we are still unsure how he is handling that just yet. Best of all, we finally got to hold our son for the first time at 17 days old! There is nothing sweeter than that moment! ☺️
The most recent development is that the surgeon has decided he wants to try to do a third attempt at reducing Dawsons omphalocele. The surgery is set for this afternoon (Day 21). Based on what we have heard, this should be a minor surgery where they just try to make the “baseball” a little smaller. We will try our best to continue to update this site so everyone who wants to stay in the loop can! We thank everyone for their love and support during this difficult and challenging time. Dawson will keep fighting here in the NICU, we will keep praying, and God willing, we will all go home soon(ish).
For now we are just taking it day by day, and celebrating the little victories as they come.
Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for updates!
You can follow Dawson's journey on his caring bridge page .
All money raised will go directly to the Pfister family to help cover medical expenses not covered by insurance such as deductibles, co-insurance and a variety of unexpected expenses a family incurs when a precious loved one is in the hospital for an extended period.
Dawson's journey by Alyssa and Brock:
Thank you in advance for reading our story.
Dawson entered the world a little earlier than we expected at 33wks & 6 days old! From the very beginning of the pregnancy we knew that our little man would be born with his intestines and liver, contained in a sac, on the outside of his tummy (a defect known as Omphalocele). We like to think of him as our little “O” warrior. We had hoped that he would make it to our scheduled 38 weeks, but clearly he was ready to get out of there! Dawson was born weighing just 4lbs and 10 oz. Following a night of testing and monitoring, our surgeon told us he believed the defect was small enough to be pushed back in through surgery, and decided it would be best to operate the very next day. The surgery was unsuccessful, as there was just no room in his tiny belly to put it all back. Poor Dawson did not handle the surgery very well and ended up needing to have 3 blood transfusions. The following days were very trying for our entire family as we waited to see how he would respond. In order to keep him from moving around too much, the doctors decided to leave him on a paralytic for 5 days straight. Nothing can prepare you to see your baby laying in his bed lifeless for that many days. Luckily he pulled through, and began to show improvement. The doctors took him off the paralytic, and allowed him to begin moving around again. The first time he opened his eyes almost melted our hearts.
The following week the surgeon felt Dawson was doing well enough to attempt to reduce his defect again. For the most part, he tolerated the second surgery pretty well (no transfusions), and recovered fairly quickly. When Dawson came back from surgery he came back with a gore-tex patch stitched over his omphalocele and into his muscle. The stitching looked remarkably like a baseball, only now that it has been awhile it looks pretty gross! We spent the following days learning to change his diaper, clean his mouth, and other small tasks to give us a little sense of normalcy. We love our time getting to care for little Dawson!
This past weekend we have had many new and exciting things happen! Dawson is now off of his oscillator and back on a regular ventilator, and they have started to feed him milk through a tube, which we are still unsure how he is handling that just yet. Best of all, we finally got to hold our son for the first time at 17 days old! There is nothing sweeter than that moment! ☺️
The most recent development is that the surgeon has decided he wants to try to do a third attempt at reducing Dawsons omphalocele. The surgery is set for this afternoon (Day 21). Based on what we have heard, this should be a minor surgery where they just try to make the “baseball” a little smaller. We will try our best to continue to update this site so everyone who wants to stay in the loop can! We thank everyone for their love and support during this difficult and challenging time. Dawson will keep fighting here in the NICU, we will keep praying, and God willing, we will all go home soon(ish).
For now we are just taking it day by day, and celebrating the little victories as they come.
Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for updates!
You can follow Dawson's journey on his caring bridge page .
Organizer
Brock Pfister
Organizer
Sachse, TX
