Team Mason
Donation protected
On 10/18/19 at 12:44am Michael and Kelsie welcomed Mason into their lives. He is the perfect addition to their family.
They were able to go home with their healthy baby boy on 10/20/19. Over the next couple of days, Michael and Kelsie noticed that Mason was starting to look a little more yellow and wasn’t nursing as well as he had been. Jaundice is something they had dealt with before when Kali was a newborn. Kali had to go for weekly bilirubin checks as well as require a bili blanket at home. They went in for checks with Mason as well and his first check was higher than Kali’s ever was. They had the bili blanket at home for Mason for about 24 hours before their primary doctor recommended Mason be re-admitted to the hospital for photo-therapy there. Mason was admitted to the pediatric floor at St. Mary’s Friday 10/25. Shortly after they got there, Mason spiked a fever.
Doctors suspected infection and started to run additional tests. Mason eventually needed to have a spinal tap. He tested positive for enterovirus meningitis. Since it is a viral infection and not bacterial, antibiotics wouldn’t help. They soon transferred Mason to the NICU floor at St. Mary’s because his breathing was being affected by the infection. He had to be intubated and sedated. They noticed on a chest/belly x-ray that Mason’s heart was enlarged. He was then diagnosed with Myocarditis, which was a result of the infection going through his heart by his blood. His left side of his heart doesn’t function properly, he has a leak in his mitral valve and he had a blood clot (which is no longer there). On Halloween, after a scare at St. Mary’s, Mason was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Madison because they had an ECMO machine. ECMO is a heart lung bypass machine.
Once getting to the children’s hospital, doctors decided Mason didn’t need the ECMO machine, at that time. They had Mason sedated and Michael and Kelsie were told it was going to be a long road for Mason to recover and it was going to be a waiting game. They spent days trying to find the balance of medications and sedation for his body to be able to fight off the virus and his heart to start to heal. After many ups and downs, Mason was then transferred to the Children’s hospital in Milwaukee because they had better options, including everything needed for a heart transplant if it came down to that.
Mason, Michael and Kelsie have now been in Milwaukee since Wednesday 11/13/19. Since being there, Mason has been doing well. They have been keeping him comfortable and still trying to find the balance of everything while not trying to over work his heart, so it can get better. Michael and Kelsie decided to go forward with having Mason evaluated for a heart transplant just in case it does come down to that, they would already have that long process complete and possibly be a step ahead. We hope and pray every second of every day he can get through this on his own, without the need of a heart transplant.
From Michael and Kelsie: “This has been the hardest thing we have ever been through. We appreciate everyone’s love and support. We are so humbled by the concern for our baby boy. We will continue to take all the prayers we can get. We hope for Mason’s heart to be able to recover from this. He is such a strong little boy. Our parents have been amazing through this past month by taking care of and spoiling Kali. We are thankful she is young enough to not really understand what is going on, other than she doesn’t see Mom and Dad very much. We miss our baby girl and we know she misses her baby brother so much.”
We will continue to post updates when we have an update we would like to share.
They were able to go home with their healthy baby boy on 10/20/19. Over the next couple of days, Michael and Kelsie noticed that Mason was starting to look a little more yellow and wasn’t nursing as well as he had been. Jaundice is something they had dealt with before when Kali was a newborn. Kali had to go for weekly bilirubin checks as well as require a bili blanket at home. They went in for checks with Mason as well and his first check was higher than Kali’s ever was. They had the bili blanket at home for Mason for about 24 hours before their primary doctor recommended Mason be re-admitted to the hospital for photo-therapy there. Mason was admitted to the pediatric floor at St. Mary’s Friday 10/25. Shortly after they got there, Mason spiked a fever.
Doctors suspected infection and started to run additional tests. Mason eventually needed to have a spinal tap. He tested positive for enterovirus meningitis. Since it is a viral infection and not bacterial, antibiotics wouldn’t help. They soon transferred Mason to the NICU floor at St. Mary’s because his breathing was being affected by the infection. He had to be intubated and sedated. They noticed on a chest/belly x-ray that Mason’s heart was enlarged. He was then diagnosed with Myocarditis, which was a result of the infection going through his heart by his blood. His left side of his heart doesn’t function properly, he has a leak in his mitral valve and he had a blood clot (which is no longer there). On Halloween, after a scare at St. Mary’s, Mason was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Madison because they had an ECMO machine. ECMO is a heart lung bypass machine.
Once getting to the children’s hospital, doctors decided Mason didn’t need the ECMO machine, at that time. They had Mason sedated and Michael and Kelsie were told it was going to be a long road for Mason to recover and it was going to be a waiting game. They spent days trying to find the balance of medications and sedation for his body to be able to fight off the virus and his heart to start to heal. After many ups and downs, Mason was then transferred to the Children’s hospital in Milwaukee because they had better options, including everything needed for a heart transplant if it came down to that.
Mason, Michael and Kelsie have now been in Milwaukee since Wednesday 11/13/19. Since being there, Mason has been doing well. They have been keeping him comfortable and still trying to find the balance of everything while not trying to over work his heart, so it can get better. Michael and Kelsie decided to go forward with having Mason evaluated for a heart transplant just in case it does come down to that, they would already have that long process complete and possibly be a step ahead. We hope and pray every second of every day he can get through this on his own, without the need of a heart transplant.
From Michael and Kelsie: “This has been the hardest thing we have ever been through. We appreciate everyone’s love and support. We are so humbled by the concern for our baby boy. We will continue to take all the prayers we can get. We hope for Mason’s heart to be able to recover from this. He is such a strong little boy. Our parents have been amazing through this past month by taking care of and spoiling Kali. We are thankful she is young enough to not really understand what is going on, other than she doesn’t see Mom and Dad very much. We miss our baby girl and we know she misses her baby brother so much.”
We will continue to post updates when we have an update we would like to share.
Organizer and beneficiary
Stacey Kirk
Organizer
Milwaukee, WI
Kelsie Perez
Beneficiary
