Liz, Christian and Baby Wesley

Here's a recap of what has been going on with little Wesley Crane Perron. He was born 3 months premature, at 2 lbs 2 oz on May 19, 2016 in Southbend Indiana and spent 10 days in their NICU before being diagnosed with NEC, meaning that the tissue in his intestines had decayed to the point that holes were forming in it. He was rushed by helicopter to the nearest pediatric surgeon (the incredible Dr. Alan Ladd; we can't thank him enough) at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis where, after a successful Colostomy and the removal of damaged intestine, our little Wesley spent the next couple of weeks grappling with a variety of issues including: Chronic Lung Disease, constant Brady events (a sudden drops in heart rate requiring resusitation), a PDA (a hole in the heart the hampers oxygen flow), and multiple infections (which ended up requiring a second, unplanned surgery to clear out).

His recovery since then has alternated between 2 steps forward, 1 step back and 1 step forward, 2 steps back. The biggest piece of good news we've gotten so far came just last week when we got word that his intestine was stable enough to handle feeding him some Mother's Milk. The hope is that the nutritional support from the milk will help speed up his healing and start reversing some of the damage done to his organs as a result of not feeding.

The last few months of have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, forwards and backs. One set of problems goes away, and another set waits to take its place. We clear out infections, but develop fistulas. We clear his fistulas, but his kidneys quit functioning. We get excited to announce that he is feeding, but get brought down by a bleed he simultaneously develops in his ostomy site. And the cycle continues.

We don't know what will happen next, or how long we'll be here, but we do know that we are immeasurably grateful for every single day we have with little Wesley and that if everything goes well, we might be able to bring him home before Christmas. Until then, the hospital is our home.

To say that we are thankful to everyone who has reached out and supported us in the past few months, those who have made it possible for us to be here with him every day, those that lent us an empathetic ear, a sympathetic shoulder, or an encouraging anecdote, would be a huge understatement. If we can raise Wesley to be half as kind and generous as so many people have shown themselves to be, we'll consider ourselves successful parents.

Much Love,

Lizz, Christian, & Wesley Crane