GoFundMe- Prayers for Daxton Gage

Our son, Daxton Gage, was born via c-section at 36 weeks. Immediately after he was born, he was taken away to the NICU at Pikeville Medical Center in Pikeville, KY. due to what we originally thought were breathing issues. After hours of waiting to hear from doctors what was happening with our baby . We received devastating news. Our beautiful baby boy was born with an unexpected congenital heart defect known as transposition of the great arteries. Thanks to the quick thinking doctors & nurses at Pikeville, our son's condition was caught quickly enough to be helped. Within just a few hours of his diagnosis he was then immediately intubated and sent to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, KY.  A little over four hours and 200+ miles away from home. Once there Daxton was also diagnosed with bleeding on both sides of his brain.  Weeks after the bleeding was discovered. We had to wait to see what was going to happen brain wise, before Daxton's heart defect could be corrected. Would the bleeding stop? Were there tiny bleeds yet to be discovered? If the bleeding stopped, would there be blood clots? You see, with open heart surgery, blood thinners are given and in Daxton's case, with the brain bleed, if blood thinners were given before the bleeding had stopped. Damage to Dax's brain would have been substationally worse. After agonizing weeks of waiting, we found out the bleeding had in fact stopped. After that wonderful news, Daxton got to have his switch surgery on 6*23*15. Everything went great as was expected. But later as he was recovering everyone had noticed Daxton was not tolerating feedings well anymore. His soft spot also was becoming firm and his head cirumfrence was growing. So, an MRI was ordered and we found out that the brain bleed had left behind blood clots. Which, in turn, had caused Daxton to develop hydrocephaly. Feeling defeated, it was explained to us that the clots from the bleeding were blocking flow of his spinal fluid from his brain to his spine. And was building up incredible pressure on his skull and brain. It was decided that Daxton needed a ventricular access device (also known as a VAD) implanted. This was so that his Neurosurgons could drain off the excess fluid manually with a tiny butterfly needle and relieve the pressure. The hope was that after a couple of weeks the problem would resolve itself.  Then, week after week of manually draining excess fluid from Daxton's brain it was evident there were no signs of the issue improving on it's own. He also was dianosed with failure to thrive around this time and his medical team were having a very hard time weaning him off the NG feeding tube and onto a bottle. He was taken to have a swallow study done to determine why. After his swallow study, we were told that everything Daxton was eating by mouth, he was aspirating. This led to Dax getting a g-tube placed until we can have another swallow study done. After the g-tube was placed, we were back to brain issues. We consulted with Neuro and it was decided a more permanent solution was needed. Which led to Daxton having a VP shunt placed. A week after Daxton's shunt surgery we got to take our boy home! But there are still many doctor follow-ups & feeding issues to fight.
We are raising funds to assist with travel expenses and accommodations to and from Louisville. Anything that is left over will be used to help with Daxton's medical bills and medical supplies. We can't even begin to express how much we appreciate everything you all do. Whether it's donating here, prayers for Daxton, or sending us your stories. All of you are a great source of strength & encouragement for us. Thank you so much! God Bless!

If you would like to follow Daxton's story on facebook here is a link to his prayer page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prayers-For-Daxton-Gage/105596116443594?ref=aymt_homepage_panel