St. Louis Intensive Care for Stella
Donation protected
It is almost every little girls dream to grow up and start a family. This was mine at least. When Shawn and I met we instantly knew we wanted to be parents and we got right to it after our wedding. Unfortunately starting a family didn't come easy for us. After meeting with several specialist, IVF would be our only option to make our dreams come true. After hundreds of shots and blood draws, and two rounds of IVF I finally got the news we had waited so long for! Fast forward to four months later when my long awaited Anatomy scan was scheduled, we were so excited to finally find out the gender of our little miracle baby. On June 15, we found out we would be expecting a precious little girl but in a flutter of joy our world came crashing down the same day. We found out she had something neither of us had ever heard of and only 1 in every 2500-3000 baby's are diagnosed with.
She has a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). When you hear hernia you think OK, simple fix she has a small rupture in her stomach no biggie, right? Well unfortunately this isn't that type of hernia. At 9 weeks or so our baby's diaphragm that keeps her intestines, stomach, kidneys and liver below her heart and lungs failed to close and as a result her intestines, stomach and spleen now lie in her chest. This left her with a heart pushed all the way to the right compromising the growth of her right lung and no visualization of if she will have a left lung or not. Right away we were sent to Children's Mercy to confirm her diagnoses and talk about the next steps. As a parent of course Shawn and I went right to researching as much as we could. We were devastated to learn that while some hospitals see a 70% chance of survival in baby's with CDH, the national average is only 50%. This seems so grim when your getting ready to have a baby. After several ultrasounds, an MRI and an echo-cardiogram of her heart Children's mercy said she only had around a 30-40% chance of making it after birth. I was to determined to let this be the end for her so we pushed on and reached out to see what our other options were and that is when we found St Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis who has a clinic dedicated to children with this defect. Thank the good lord they gave us a much better prognosis which takes me back to now! ( Thank you if you have made it this far!!)
October 18 has been the set day for Stella to make her grand arrival. As soon as she leaves me, before she can take her first breath she will immediately be incubated with a tube inserted through her mouth to her chest that will breath for her, along with another tube that will keep her stomach empty. She will also have three IV lines placed, one for medicine, another for fluids and another in her umbilical cord that will send nutrition to her blood since she will be unable to eat for an undetermined amount of time. All this will hopefully stabilize her until she can have surgery to place everything back to where it belongs. After surgery the real journey begins. Most of these baby's struggle to eat since their stomach grew where is didn't belong and this creates a curve in the esophagus making it hard for her to keep food down. She will also struggle with learning to suckle since the first thing in her mouth after birth is a tube. I've grown to except that fact that my baby cant come home right away, but this has also left a huge gap in finances for Shawn and I which leads me to our reasoning behind this fundraiser.
We are looking at living in Saint Louis for at least 2-3 months possibly longer if she doesn't improve. This being said our bills don't stop meaning we are paying to live in two places at once on top of the costly medical bills that have and are about to incur. Were not asking for a handout, but if you can even $5 makes all the difference. Please SHARE SHARE SHARE. I plan to keep everyone updated as we navigate through this complicated journey.
She has a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). When you hear hernia you think OK, simple fix she has a small rupture in her stomach no biggie, right? Well unfortunately this isn't that type of hernia. At 9 weeks or so our baby's diaphragm that keeps her intestines, stomach, kidneys and liver below her heart and lungs failed to close and as a result her intestines, stomach and spleen now lie in her chest. This left her with a heart pushed all the way to the right compromising the growth of her right lung and no visualization of if she will have a left lung or not. Right away we were sent to Children's Mercy to confirm her diagnoses and talk about the next steps. As a parent of course Shawn and I went right to researching as much as we could. We were devastated to learn that while some hospitals see a 70% chance of survival in baby's with CDH, the national average is only 50%. This seems so grim when your getting ready to have a baby. After several ultrasounds, an MRI and an echo-cardiogram of her heart Children's mercy said she only had around a 30-40% chance of making it after birth. I was to determined to let this be the end for her so we pushed on and reached out to see what our other options were and that is when we found St Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis who has a clinic dedicated to children with this defect. Thank the good lord they gave us a much better prognosis which takes me back to now! ( Thank you if you have made it this far!!)
October 18 has been the set day for Stella to make her grand arrival. As soon as she leaves me, before she can take her first breath she will immediately be incubated with a tube inserted through her mouth to her chest that will breath for her, along with another tube that will keep her stomach empty. She will also have three IV lines placed, one for medicine, another for fluids and another in her umbilical cord that will send nutrition to her blood since she will be unable to eat for an undetermined amount of time. All this will hopefully stabilize her until she can have surgery to place everything back to where it belongs. After surgery the real journey begins. Most of these baby's struggle to eat since their stomach grew where is didn't belong and this creates a curve in the esophagus making it hard for her to keep food down. She will also struggle with learning to suckle since the first thing in her mouth after birth is a tube. I've grown to except that fact that my baby cant come home right away, but this has also left a huge gap in finances for Shawn and I which leads me to our reasoning behind this fundraiser.
We are looking at living in Saint Louis for at least 2-3 months possibly longer if she doesn't improve. This being said our bills don't stop meaning we are paying to live in two places at once on top of the costly medical bills that have and are about to incur. Were not asking for a handout, but if you can even $5 makes all the difference. Please SHARE SHARE SHARE. I plan to keep everyone updated as we navigate through this complicated journey.
Organizer
Alexandria Mowrey
Organizer
Kansas City, MO
