Baby Archie's Heart Surgeries

We are raising money to help pay for our son's medical bills. He's only 7 months old and already staring down his second brain surgery and first heart surgery with possibly more operations to come. He requires weekly physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. All of the medical help he has been able to receive has been a life-saving miracle, however, we have come to realize miracles are built from blood, tears and flesh. Baby Archie has paid more than his fair share for his miracles; the only ones with anything left to pay are my husband and I. We thought once we met the out-of-pocket maximum and Archie graduated out of the NICU, the bills would slow down and we could stay afloat fiancially but with each new milestone comes new challenges, new surgeries, and new bills. It doesn't appear that next year's medical expenses will be much better.  



Archie was born 6 weeks early with a grade 4 brain bleed (the worst grade). The bleed stopped on it's own but in it's wake left little Archie with hydrocephaly, a lowered white blood cell count, severe jaundice and respiratory issues. So, weighing a whooping 4 lbs, Archie received a VP shunt permanently installed into his brain with a drainage tube into his stomach, multiple white blood cell transfusions and spent several weeks under sun lamps with a breathing tube down his throat. He eventually made a slow but gradual turn for the better. Oddly enough, his biggest discomfort seemed to come from trying to feed. He has GERD, a severe form of acid reflux and hypersensitive gag reflex possibly left over from his brain injury with the bleed. He threw up constantly for at least a month. The therapists worked with him and reduced his sensitivity. The doctors prescribed him meds for his reflux and we were getting ready to take him home when they told us he has pulmonary stenosis and would need open heart surgery within a month. They have been telling us this for the past 5 months expecting Archie's condition to worsen at anytime but it hasn't. They even found yet another faulty valve in his heart but he hasn't needed the surgery yet. His cardiologist said he hadn't seen anything like it. Archie is strong. 



   In total, he spent 67 days in the NICU where instead of bringing home my tiny baby, I brought home receiving blankets he had bled on and a bag of hair his neurosurgeon thoughtfully saved for me from his first haircut. I have learned that miracles and answered prayers don't always look the way we imagine them but it's always worth the fight and any support you can give us would be very much appreciated.


Thank you for reading all the way through.  Never take good health for granted! God bless you for your support.