Our story starts with our sweet 2-week-old Melody being admitted into urgent care on Friday, 8/8, with a head bob and a squeak when she breathes. They didn’t know what was wrong with her and thought she looked bad enough that she should be sent to the ER for better testing.

We got to the ER where they ran dozens of tests and blood work and began some treatments to help support her breathing while they observed to see if she would need to be taken somewhere more capable of emergency pediatric care.

She started breathing harder and having tractions in her chest and back. They didn’t know why she was working so hard to breathe. They monitored her closely all through the day.

Finally, at around 11 pm Friday, they suggested she be life-flighted to Utah to Primary Children’s Hospital to see a specialist to find out why she is working so hard. I flew with her while my husband drove. We arrived in Utah at about 3:30 in the morning on Saturday.

They took blood and ran cultures on it to see what was wrong with her. They did an X-ray to see her lungs. One lung was white while the other was dark. They figured it had something to do with the lighter-looking lung. Her breathing had gotten so bad that she was put on a C-Pap mask to support her breathing. The C-Pap was helping for the moment.

They had the pulmonologist look over her X-ray, and they said that she has a rare condition called congenital lobar overinflation, like congenital emphysema. The middle lobe bronchial was too small, so it would let air in when she breathes, but air cannot escape when she exhales. So every breath is filling it more and more, squishing the top and bottom lobe, pressing against her little heart, and pushing so hard against her left lung that it collapsed and was sticking to itself. So she needs to have surgery.

They needed to do a lung resection and remove the middle lobe of her right lung. So by removing that branch, it should help her breathe. Right before they took her into surgery, her blood cultures came back, and it showed she tested positive for Group B Strep. She had a bacterial infection in her blood. So they needed to do a lumbar puncture and test her spinal fluid. The tap unfortunately didn’t work. She’s just so little they didn’t know where to tap. They treated her for meningitis just to get ahead of it. They took her back at 7:30 Saturday night to do a three-hour surgery and remove that part of her lung. The surgery was a success. They left her to rest, and her tractions stopped. They took the C-Pap mask off and gave her a breathing tube on a ventilator.

My husband and I finally went to get some much-needed sleep and get our strength back for our sweet Melody. We woke up at 5 in the morning Sunday to check on her. Her blood pressure was low, and she was on 7 different IVs, including Dilaudid and Precedex, along with anesthesia to keep her calm. They are hoping to give her a feeding tube since she hasn’t eaten since Saturday at 1:30 in the morning and is only on a saline drip with electrolytes and sugar. They are hoping with her eating that they can slowly back off the anesthesia and hopefully bring her blood pressure back up to a stable, healthy level with less medicine and interventions. That’s all we know so far and hope to find out more as the day progresses. We just are in need of prayers and financial help because of the life flight, urgent care, all the nights stayed at both hospitals, and our sweet baby Melody’s continued aftercare treatments and needs once she is finally discharged from the hospital.

My husband and I have been an emotional mess since Friday afternoon. My husband is the only one working at the moment, and he is out of PTO time and sick days. He’s missed so much work and will probably have to drive back to Idaho for work sometime this week. Every little bit helps with travel, food, and self-care. We thank you in advance if you can help donate to help with the cost for this stressful week, and if you can’t, we completely understand.

This little girl has been a fighter since birth with a 49-hour unmedicated labor and C-section. She will continue to fight with everything she has!! We love her so much and just want to see her get better.