Anya Mae's Story: Day 5- Apparently yesterday I was wrong… in a good way.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Day 5- Apparently yesterday I was wrong… in a good way.

Anya did not get a chest tube today, Dr. Kays checked a chest x-ray and did not feel it was necessary now; she still may need one in the future though. Her swelling is way down and she was able to open her eyes today, was wiggling around and opening her mouth, sticking out her tongue. Most importantly is, drumroll please…they already started turning down her ECMO settings! I had no idea that this would happen now, and I am not sure of the significance of it, but it is exciting to me. Gotta keep in mind however that getting off ECMO takes a long time, and is a one step forward and two steps back kind of process, she could just as easily need more tomorrow. Everything is moving in the right way, so I guess I was wrong in it isn’t too early to see some progress. God is gracious!

1 comment:

The 4 and 1/2 of usJune 21, 2012 at 8:32 PM
Kelly she's gorgeous!! I am so happy everything is going so well. God is amazingly good. We are thinking of you every day!!!

-Verseman's
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Summary of Anya's story.

Anya was diagnosed at my 20 week ultrasound with congenital diaphramatic hernia. Over the course of about a month multiple tests were done to determine how severe her case was. A group in St. Louis told us since her head-to-lung ratio was at 0.8, with three being normal and lower than one being severe, she would not have much chance at survival. In fact, one doctor said it would be 'ethically optional' for us to attempt treatment; she was so severe that any treatment would be futile.
Doing research online I came across Dr. David Kays, a pediatric surgon at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Babies under Dr. Kays care have a 90% chance of survival. Nationally the survival rate is 50%. We flew down for a consult and he did agree that her CDH was severe, and he offered us no promises, but he thought she might have a 65% chance at survival.
We relocated to Gainesville the 36th week of pregnancy and I was induced in the 37th week. Anya's CDH repair was done the morning after she was born; there was a very brief window where she was stable enough to be operated on. Only hours after surgery she was put on ECMO, Dr. Kays had spent the entire day with her, guiding her care.
Anya was on ECMO for 30 days; during this run she had a bleed in her chest and needed a thoracatomy to remove it. She improved after the thoracotomy and was able to come off of ECMO.
Weaning Anya off the vent was a big challenge. She was extubated three times before she was successful. After the second failure she had a nissen fundoplycation and a g-buttton to treat reflux, the thought was that if she was able to digest feeds her lungs would be stronger.
She is still working on overcoming the CDH issues. She still uses a G-button to make sure she gets enough calories. She gets speech, PT and OT but is well on her way to catching up.
Adam, Arwen, Anya and I thank God for all of the blessings he has provided on this journey: family and friends who have been extremely supportive, the fantastic staff at Shands, and of course Dr. Kays as well.