Hi, my name is Courtney. I am wanting to share what’s going on with my baby, Bristol Rose.

She was born on May 27th @ 5:10pm, weighing 7lbs & 4oz. When she was born she had swallowed some amniotic fluid & was having to be suctioned to clear her air way. While we were in the hospital for 2 days i expressed to the care team that she was throwing up a lot & appeared to be choking but it was something that was dismissed. We came home on my birthday, May 29th. Bristol would sleep a lot & was still throwing up which would later progress to projectile throwing up. She wasn’t waking in the night, i had to set alarms to get her up. Friday i took her into the pediatrician for her hospital follow up, may 30th. I expressed the throwing up issue & asked about switching formulas. As far as that appt she was healthy. Had just weighed under her birth weight at 6lbs 14oz. Saturday the throwing up was getting worse but we powered through it since she was still holding some of it down. Sunday, June 1st i noticed a rash pop up to her torso on one side. Someone had exposed her to shingles when i was in the hospital.. that had touched her when i went into the bathroom, i caught the contact as i came back out into the room. I had made it clear that no one gets in my baby’s face or kisses her because she has a little body and cannot handle big germs. I took her to Vanderbilt kids walk in urgent care to have the rash checked out, we sat back in a separate room for 45 mins then they took her to weigh & check vitals. Upon checking vitals her temp was 94.3. It was checked twice because they didn’t think the reading was accurate but it was. We did immediate skin to skin & got warmed blankets on her. The doctor came in & told me that the issues with an extremely high or a low temp usually links to sepsis & she recommended we get an ambulance to get her down to the hospital to treat the hypothermia & get the body temp up, otherwise she could pass away.

we got to the ER & they put her on a bed with a heat lamp, put an IV in, took several tubes of blood, drew fluid off her spine, had so many hands on trying to get things treated. She started on antibiotics to potentially treat shingles..

monday June 2nd, one of the doctors come into her room to let me know she has tested positive from HSV. Which is extremely dangerous in babies & could be fatal. She’s had several rounds of antibiotics but what started as them saying it would be a 2 day stay has extended to 2 more weeks and possibly now 3 due to it spreading to her eye lids yesterday. She has a long road to recovery as after discharge she will be on an oral medicine for 6 months & this will be something she carries for the rest of her life. How did she get it? Someone infected with HSV exposed my baby.

after the mri it has came back normal and they said that she has some cysts on the brain.

as of right now, the sepsis screening hasn’t results in the system. I do not know if she is out of the woods as far as that is just yet.

june 3rd, Wednesday they tried getting her pic line in and was not successful due to small veins. It is now june 4th Thursday and they are suppose to try again today.

i am asking for financial help with things at home so i don’t lose my house and car, or any of my belongings due to not being able to keep up with bills. I have 2 other children that i have never been away from this long as well that is taking a toll on me as i also scored high on my postpartum depression and anxiety screening before i was discharged last week from the hospital. The weight of the world is on my shoulders and i have three little humans that are relying on me to not fail.

thank you for your time & anything you are able to contribute to my little family in this very difficult time.