Fighting for Cache

On February 5th, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Cache Michael Verde was born into this world. Weighing 2.7 pounds and 14 inches long, he sent a wave of love through his corner of the world.

The problems started when mom’s water broke at 22 weeks. At 22 weeks, if mom went into labor, the baby could not be saved.  Luckily, mom was not having contractions.  After a visit to the hospital, mom was sent home to wait until 25 weeks when the baby was viable.  Cache as born at 27 weeks.

It is typical that women go into labor after the water breaks.  In this case, the extra time before Cache was born, allowed him to continue to develop, but there are several risks when a pregnancy is not terminated – including a high propensity for birth defects or other problems.  Mom felt like she should try to keep the baby and would face the potential issues that might occur and hope that there would be a minimum of problems.

For most babies, getting to 25 weeks is critical in the development of the lungs which is also dependent on amniotic fluid for proper development. Because Cache's lungs no longer had much amniotic fluid to work with he was born at 27 weeks but born with very undeveloped lungs.  We’d only find out several weeks later that at birth, his lungs were only developed to that of a 23-week-old.

He was immediately put on a ventilator with a breathing and feeding tube which took over the job of breathing for him until he could get big enough to breath on his own.  The ventilator was necessary for him to survive, but also causes scar tissue on already underdeveloped lungs.  Life at this age is a delicate balance of survival without causing too many side effects by the machines required to save a life.

At this point, Cache is past his normal due date and has been in the Newborn ICU (NICU) for over 5 months and still requires a ventilator to survive.  One of the side-effects of the breathing tube is oral aversions to food because tubes in his mouth (breathing and feeding tubes). To help solve this problem, Cache required tracheostomy surgery a few weeks ago to insert a breathing tube in his trachea and a g-tube for feeding.  He will likely have the tracheostomy for the first 5-6 years of life.  As for feeding, we’re trying to teach him to eat through his mouth – which will be a very slow process.

Cache has been moved from his birth hospital to Primary Children’s Medical Center to get more intensive help with his lungs and will likely spend many more months in the hospital receiving care.

As you can image, Cache’s life has been very intense. Mom and Dad have learned to fight with a lot of emotion and stress!  With the move to the new hospital, what used to be a 10-15 minute ride is now a hour long commute.  Mom has lost her job – mostly due to having to spend time at the hospital, and longer term will require that she be at home with her little one.  Dad is working very hard to keep up, but with mounting medical bills, they are struggling to make ends meet.  Finances have become a very large burden in their lives when all they want to worry about is their little boy who is fighting for his life.

A small donation would go a long way and help ease their burden and stress as they go through this trying time, and would be greatly appreciated. As always, prayers are always accepted. Thank you for the love and support!