This could be the longest post ever.
Being pregnant, I am trying to figure out how I will deal with my anxieties over Mason's birth and health problems afterwards. I am so blessed that this is a fleeting memory most days. But being pregnant is not most days. It is bringing another life into the world, and hoping you do it right. Hoping things don't turn out the same.
I got on myspace (don't do that much anymore) and I want to post the blogs I wrote in the days after his birth. This way everything will be in one spot...and for those that may not know why as the birth approaches I may become more crazy than I am now.
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Baby Mason, please pray!!!!
Mason Fraser Dominy was born at 8:30am on the 17th, and he was 8 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. He stayed with us while recovering and was with us until 4:30ish. At about 4:30 he stopped breathing while he was in his room with us. We called the nurse and he was whisked away to the NICU. Mason has bleeding in the layers between his brain and skull, and a little inside his brain. This had gotten worse as the day went on, but was not significant at birth. They are most worried about the later, bleeding in his brain, as that will cause damage, but hopefully we will be able to teach around the damaged areas. They do not know how it will effect his development, but we will watch him closely for the next 5 years. He is on a breathing machine, iv, and will begin to get a feeding tube tommorrow. He will, if the bleeding does not progress come home on lots of medicine, and machines to monitor breathing in about 2 weeks. If it does not stop, he will have an operation to relieve pressure, and still hope to not have long term damage, but not be home for a long time.
I am telling my son, he will be better, and this will pass. We are planning on a miracle, not hoping but planning. Please pray (if you do not pray, keep him in your thoughts!) for our baby, and strength for our family!
Thank you ahead of time for your thoughts!!!
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Mason's update 7/19/2006
Mason got his third CT scan last night and there was no change! This is the best possible news we can expect at this point. It also meant he got to stay in The Woodlands as oppossed to going downtown. He stopped bleeding during the day, and had gotten no worse! We woke up this morning at 5am, and they took him off the ventilater (sp?). He was angry and cried (such a sweet sound) but was breathing on his own for over an hour. He was still going strong when we had to leave.
This has taught me so much about positive thinking, and the power of prayer! MySpace has been criticised for many reasons, but all I know is if it helped all of you to know to pray for my baby, I am so grateful. I am brought to tears writing this for all of your love and thoughts!
What is to come for Mason: He has an MRI today to check for fluid, damage, blood vessels, etc. He will have another EEG for seizure activity, and he will hope to stay off the ventilater. I will keep you all updated, as you are such a big part of my son's recovery.
Please keep praying and thinking as my baby and my family still have oh so many challenges to come!!!! Thank you all :o)
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Thursday, July 20, 2006
I am amazed!
Three days ago I had the one of the sickest babies in the NICU. He had a personal nurse and was rapidily undergoing tests to determine what was going on with him.
Today, I visited my pink precious son. He has colorful blankets, no batman mask to protect his eyes from the lights he no longer needs. He has had a bath, and his weight (hadn't been done for fear of moving him). He has maintained a good weight. He is no longer seizuring. He is forgetting to breath every once in while becuase of medicine, but not to bad. His nose canola (oxygen tubes) are set on room air (air you and I breath) just helping with a little puff! He will be moved to a bed soon also (no warmer). GOD is huge! I have always been a chirstian, but I am moved to a new belief! We have not feared, and he has answered our prayers and protected our little man, when things could of been so bad for him!
Mason breastfeed this morning and gets to continue all day long!!!!! I will now be struggling with where to be, with my son Ayden or at the hospital all the time with my new guy Mason! My hubby has amazed me in every way, and will be just fine with my older son, so I think I know where I am needed most! I hope to have an update on Mason's last EEG and an estimated come home date soon! I will let everyone know! I am so grateful for everyone...please pass this along, as the people that prayed for me and my family need to know I truly love you all and owe you everything!!!
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Friday, July 21, 2006
Friday!
Today was a wonderful day with Mason. I walked into the NICU and he was out of the room and on the floor. He is in a basinet/crib like the one every baby is in when they are born. He didn't have the nose canola in anymore either!!! So basically he has monitors on and a iv that is not pumping fluids, just there to have the line in just in case!
I feed him all day today and was at the hospital from 8am to 6 then came home to diner and bathtime with Ayden, and back for the 8 o clock feed. They are giving him mama's milk tonight 3 times in a bottle, then the same thing tommorrow!
To come home, he has to be stable and have stable medicine levels. They also have to do another MRI so we have a baseline for future nuerologist appointments. The doctors were very busy today and haven't gotten to rounds yet with Mason, but I will call at like 1 am to check on him and see what comes next. He really looks like he was never a sick baby!
Thanks again to everyone that helped us. I wanted to give people updates!
This is a link to pictures of him from the last two days, the first ones are from a few days ago.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1&Uc=r1uxnhb.arr2ihyr&Uy=j9uxab&Ux=1
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Saturday, July 29, 2006
Mason is home!
Mason came home on Thrusday! Lots of directions and doctor appointments in the next weeks, but I am so happy!
I am sleeping well because he is on a monitor, that lets me know if he stops breathing. It has not gone off yet! :o) (except for false alarms!) His CT the day before we left showed significant improvement in the size of the subdural bleed, and the bleed that is actually in his brain has already begun to wall off and turn to fluid. The neurologist will let us know this week about seizure activity!
My happiness to have my son home and out of harms way comes before the fact that it is HARD work to have two little kiddos! (three if you count my hubby) We are adjusting and looking forward to normal life when things calm down!
Pictures to come!!!
Also, I thank everyone that took the time to pray for my little guy and our family! I truely belieive that my son will be perfect because of God and all of your love!
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Long awaited update on my boy...
I revisited many of my posts from when I was in the hospital after having Mason, and it brought back such raw emotions, and I cried again. I thought it was time that I update everyone who helped my babies miraculous recovery....
Mason has had many doctor appointments and therapist visits. He has been weaned off of his seizure meds after having a sucessful 24-hr EEG (which was hell with a two month old). He has been told by the neurosurgeon that he doesn't need him as a doctor, and that all is well, and he will not need surgery anytime soon in his life. (The only reason he might later is if Iron deposits in his brain). He has been cut back to monthly visits by the therapist, because he is all caught up right now developmentaly.
It is tough to go to the doctor visits though. I am with my little guy every day and he seems wonderful, but then you go to the doctor and they remind you that "on paper" your baby seems very ill, and does not have a great prognosis. We learned at the neurosurgeon that pretty much his entire left hemisphere of his brain was damaged to some degree by a stroke he suffered (I had not known about this then, but it makes sense now) or the bleeding in his brain. He has made unbelievable new connections in the healthy parts of his brain to maintain normal function. As for the long term....we have to wait and see.
I pray every day...for him and for everyone now. These types of things strengthen your faith. Thanks and I just wanted to share.
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Saturday, December 02, 2006
IT's official, he is a miracle!
Just in time for Christmas...
We had an appointment with the Physical Therapist last week
for Mason. She said to me, "He is truly a miracle. Whatever
you believe in sure did work, because he should exhibit more
setbacks, and physical problems for his medical diagnosis."
Mason is right on target for every developmental milestone,
despite having his left hemisphere effected by either the
brain bleed (where brain matter died and is non-existent)
or the stroke (where his brain can recover, but we don't
know if it has). My little miracle baby could be working
off of only his right hemisphere (the body is amazing!)
This just goes to show you, that you can control the doctors
diagnosis through the power of positive thinking
and God!
We are going to keep praying for every developmental
milestone to be reached, but we know he is going to be a
perfect little man for the rest of his life! Mason has a
MRI on December 22nd, to make sure that everything is
heeling correctly, and to see the damage from the stroke and
how it has recovered. The praying that needs to happen here
is for his mama, since I can't nurse him for 8 hours before
the procedure (and he is nursing three times a night and the
MRI is at 8am, agghhhhhh)! We do not expect any surprises
from the MRI because we would see symptoms if things were
worse or even the same!
What a great Christmas present! Now if we can just get past
this bronchiolitis (viral form of bronchitis in babies) we
have going on here, we would be golden!
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
Finally
I am proud to say that this will more than likely be our
last and final update for Mason (cause he is doing so
well). He had his MRI and it went well. The IV was the
worst part, as it took me and mom and three nurses, and
about twenty to thirty minutes to get done. They stuck him
many times in the hand and foot before finally getting it
in. We went to the side of the hospital where doctors
monitor things, and they put him under. It was immediate as
he passed out in our arms.
Glenn got the results back last Wednesday. I went back up
the the NICU where he was born and had the wonderful nurse
practitioner help me interpret the results (his neurologist
is not very wordy). Everything has healed very well. The
area of the brain where he was bleeding inside his brain
have pretty much reabsorbed fine. There are some iron
deposits that would probably be of concern if he were an
adult, but since his brain had not "mapped" itself when the
bleeding occurred, the brain pretty much re-routed around
his area of damage. The portion of his brain (2/3 of his
left temporal lobe, and a little of his parietal lobe) are
gone. The brain does not regenerate. Either his right side
or what little is left of the temporal lobe on the left have
obviously picked up the functions of the damaged area. We
do not have to go to any specialists for a year, unless
anything new arrives (which nobody thinks will happen).
Only time will tell if there will be any long term damage.
I am sure I will be one of those mothers that tells her
healthy happy son about all the health problems he had as a
baby and he will reply with "yeah whatever mom, i have heard
this story before" :o) For this I am thankful.
I will leave you a link to one MRI image of his head, as it is
truly remarkable to see the size of damage, and marvel in
the work of the human body and God's will. (the long black
area with bits of white in it a little below the middle of
his head is the area of the brain where it is damaged. It
goes from the side of his head to a little less than half of
the width of his head). And then a link to one pic of him and his
brother for the fun of it! :o)
Have a great new year and hooray for 2007!
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f187/heather101380/brain0007.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f187/heather101380/KidFun_18.jpg
PS maybe my sis will tell me how to actually post the pics!
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Sunday, July 22, 2007
Mason turns one!
Happy Birthday Mason!
Mason had his first birthday this past week! What a wonderful week we had. I can not believe and imagine where we were last year!
Mason is walking, talking, waving, everything a normal one year old does and then some! We are so proud of our little man. I read back to one of my posts and it speaks about how we will have to watch him for the next 5 years to see if he has any long term effects from his events after his birth, and I am so happy that we are ONE YEAR DOWN, and only four to go! And that this past year was one with no more complications!
Ayden is such a good big brother most of the times! He is growing like a weed, big thing for us is swimming! He is doing so well in the pool.~Hopefully Aunnie will be posting pictures soon!
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My sweet little miracle man!
Birth to Happy Birthday 2!
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