Beloved Blake

Our son Blake was born with several birth defects. He was born with only one functioning kidney (the other covered in cysts), a hole in his heart, and two defects in his esophagus.  The only thing we knew was wrong before his birth was that he had cysts on one of his kidneys,  so you can imagine our total devastation the day he was born.  The most life threatening birth defect he had  is called Esophageal Atresia with a TE Fistula. In a nutshell, Blake's esophagus (tube that carries food to the stomach) was not connected to his stomach. He had major surgery at just 3 days old to connect his esophagus to his stomach. He survived the surgery  and spent 3 weeks in the NICU before coming home.  He has done really well, despite early set backs, up until now.

As Blake started eating solids, I noticed he would choke and vomit almost every time he ate. It is common for babies that have the type of surgery he did.  After having a swallow study done, we were informed that Blake has scar tissue in the esophagus, and over time the scar tissue has thickened and created a narrowing in the esophagus. When this happens, food is unable to pass through to the stomach. Last week Blake went in for an outpatient surgical procedure to stretch his esophagus back out. He went under general anesthesia and his surgeon looked down his esophagus with a scope and then used a balloon down his esophagus at the point of the narrowing and inflated the balloon to stretch the esophagus back out. Unfortunately, the esophageal dilation didn't last long (only 3 days) so he went back in a week later to have it done again, this week. The procedure went fine, however, while they were doing the procedure they took fluoroscopic pictures and found a mass of some sort in his lungs. Blake had a horrible time in recovery after his surgery and was in pretty bad respiratory distress. Unable to breath well and keep his oxygen levels up. He was admitted to Diamond Children's hospital Tuesday and is still there now. Blake had a chest X-ray as well as a CT scan to get pictures of what was showing up in his lungs. What they originally thought was pneumonia ended up being diagnosed as a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. It's basically a hole in his diaphragm, and his intestines have moved their way into the hole and they are pressing up against his lungs. This can be life threatening if not surgically corrected right away. It's a pretty big surgery that is going to require a week or two hospital stay. Blake is a fighter and already such a strong boy. We are hopeful and positive that he will make it through this surgery and recover quickly!

I am very humbly asking friends and family that are able to please help out,  to help take some of the financial burden off of us.  Even if it's a very small amount, everything helps. This is Blake's 4th surgery in 11 months and we know he will need at least one more shortly after this next big one.  Not only is it taking an emotional tole on us but it's also greatly financially burdening us.  I had to make the tough decision to quit working after Blake was born with so many health problems and Jeff has had to take off a lot of work this year to be there for Blake. The last thing we want be worrying about right now are medical bills and loss of income. If you are able to help out financially, it's truly appreciated.  More than I could ever put into words.  Please pray for Baby Blake for a quick and safe surgery and recovery this coming week.  Please pray for the surgeon and surgery team that will have our sweet babies life in their hands.  

If you would like to know more details about Blake's journey,  I have kept a blog since I was 20 weeks pregnant.  The link is www.belovedblake.wordpress.com 

xoxo, Jill & Jeff