Baby Winslow McNeal's NICU Stay
Donation protected
Please donate as little or as much as you can to little Winslow and his continued care in the Wolfsons NICU. Rachael & Kevin are so grateful for the support and love they have recieved from everyone. We are hoping to contibute to their medical costs and expenses as they travel from St. Augustine to Jacksonville on a daily basis. You can read continuous updates on Winslow's care on Rae's blog- http://eloquentlyinarticulate.blogspot.com/2015/09/hes-here.html
For more info on Winslow's condition read:
"The team taking care of Winslow is certain he has what's called a chylothorax, which means the fluid that has been leaking into the pleural space (the space around Winslow's right lung) is lymphatic. This is caused by a leak or tear in the thoracic duct. There is actually nothing they can do to fix the tear because the duct is so small that it's essentially impossible to find, so it has to heal on its own. It's also impossible to know how long that will take. This is very very rare. The last baby they had with a chylothorax (which it sounds like it's been a couple years) was in the NICU 3 months.
What they are doing for him now is monitoring him. He gets an X-ray every morning to see if the fluid is growing, staying the same or decreasing. The first 2 days it looked like it was growing, which means the duct is still damaged and leaking fluid into the space. Since the fluid is lymphatic, the fluid can get worse when fat enters the body (think breastmilk). So it was no surprise at first that it was growing. We were temporarily excited because there was no change from Saturday to Monday. Unfortunately, this morning's X-ray showed that there was more fluid in the space around his lung. In fact, it has almost resumed to its original size. They are continuing to give him only breastmilk, however, if there's more fluid tomorrow they will have to cut back on breastmilk and supplement with a non-fat formula. Additionally, if the fluid has increased tomorrow, there's a chance they'll have to do the procedure again and drain it. As you can imagine, we were pretty discouraged this morning. Thankfully, eventually the duct will heal itself and the fluid in the pleural space will decrease (the body essentially reabsorbs the fluid) and it will be as if Winslow never had anything wrong with him.
So what does all this mean for our length of stay? Nothing yet. Winslow is still in the NICU and they can't guess for how long. It seems that we may be here for the long haul."
For more info on Winslow's condition read:
"The team taking care of Winslow is certain he has what's called a chylothorax, which means the fluid that has been leaking into the pleural space (the space around Winslow's right lung) is lymphatic. This is caused by a leak or tear in the thoracic duct. There is actually nothing they can do to fix the tear because the duct is so small that it's essentially impossible to find, so it has to heal on its own. It's also impossible to know how long that will take. This is very very rare. The last baby they had with a chylothorax (which it sounds like it's been a couple years) was in the NICU 3 months.
What they are doing for him now is monitoring him. He gets an X-ray every morning to see if the fluid is growing, staying the same or decreasing. The first 2 days it looked like it was growing, which means the duct is still damaged and leaking fluid into the space. Since the fluid is lymphatic, the fluid can get worse when fat enters the body (think breastmilk). So it was no surprise at first that it was growing. We were temporarily excited because there was no change from Saturday to Monday. Unfortunately, this morning's X-ray showed that there was more fluid in the space around his lung. In fact, it has almost resumed to its original size. They are continuing to give him only breastmilk, however, if there's more fluid tomorrow they will have to cut back on breastmilk and supplement with a non-fat formula. Additionally, if the fluid has increased tomorrow, there's a chance they'll have to do the procedure again and drain it. As you can imagine, we were pretty discouraged this morning. Thankfully, eventually the duct will heal itself and the fluid in the pleural space will decrease (the body essentially reabsorbs the fluid) and it will be as if Winslow never had anything wrong with him.
So what does all this mean for our length of stay? Nothing yet. Winslow is still in the NICU and they can't guess for how long. It seems that we may be here for the long haul."
Organizer and beneficiary
Michelle Kypriss Doenges
Organizer
St. Augustine, FL
Rachael McNeal
Beneficiary