Baby Mason and Family

Hello, I'm Kirstin, one of ShyAnne's close friends. With permission from her, I will share a little of what is going on. 

Sweet Mason Frank was born on March 17th, and shortly after Brian and ShyAnne got home from the hospital, Mason got the rhinovirus which sparked an underlying heart issue.  An ER visit and night in the pediatrics unit, they were hopeful they were making progress. Fast forward a few days, they went in for a follow up appointment and little man took a severe turn, went blue, limp and found him in SVT (heart rate of 300). They ended up back in the ER and they thought they were going to lose their sweet boy.  When he was admitted into the hospital that night, he was in heart failure. 

Initially the doctors thought he had what was called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which is a rare but pretty treatable heart condition. They started him on some medication and needed to make it to 72 hours without an episode of SVT but could not get him there, although they were close many times.  However, they meds helped enough to give his heart enough rest, to bring him out of heart failure and get his organs properly functioning. They then started him on a second type of medication, and as of today he failed that medication as well. ShyAnne and Mason were flown up to OHSU. Since being up there, there is some conflicting information and they're not sure what exactly is going on. The way it has been explained to me is that they are not sure if it is the WPW. You can have just an SVT heart condition, however, the concern is then what is causing it. ShyAnne said the cardiology team is great and he will get more imaging and labs done, and the team thinks it could be one of four things. 

Once Mason's heart is under control, it sounds like ShyAnne and Brian will have to be constantly monitoring Mason to make sure that his heart does not convert back into SVT. As you can imagine, this would make any mom not want to leave their baby for any period of time. The two medications they are trialing now, are five times a day. So that will be added into their daily stress. For the next six months, ShyAnne and Brian will have to be constantly checking his heart rate between medications and making sure he does not go back into heart failure. He will most likely have very frequent cardiology appointments, including local and back at OHSU once released, and potentially a future heart surgery. With the previous speculated condition, it was said that he could have a heart ablation once he reached 80 pounds, which would most likely keep his heart in the correct rhythm. 

Brian and ShyAnne were able to be together with Mason while they were staying at Rogue the last ten days. However, since Mason was flown to OHSU, they made the tough decision to have Brian stay home to maintain some sense of normalcy for the kids this week at home. 

Although we know Mason and Shy are in the best place possible, this doesn't go without heartache and stress. ShyAnne, as many know is a local nurse in the ER at Rogue Regional. She applied for Short term disability but was denied. So as of right now, she has no income and it is unknown when she can return to work. Brian will eventually need to return to work, so that he can make ends meet at home. Also, the ambulance rides, life flight, medical appointments, traveling expenses, general life expenses, can cause financial stress for the family, when they should be getting to worry about getting their baby healthy.  Any and all help will be very appreciated. I know Shy and Brian have appreciated all the food and love people have sent, check ins, coffee, help with the kids, etc.