Brady's "O" Journey
Brady Alexander Wine was born at 38 weeks on 9/14/16 at 10:43 am. Due to his condition he was delivered at the OSU Wexner Medical Center and transferred to Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, OH. Brady was born with an abdominal defect called an omphalocele. With an omphalocele, the stomach wall closes during gestation and some or all organs can be stuck outside in a sack connected to the umbilical cord. In Brady's case, his omphalocele contained his liver and his spleen. The surgical team decided to do what's called a Schuster technique to put everything back inside. This is a series of 4-6 surgeries, gradually pushing everything back inside while giving the lungs time to acclimate to the extra pressure.
When Brady arrived by c-section, Megan and myself got to spend around 2 minutes together with him before he was taken away to the intensive care unit. Once at the NICU, Brady spent around 4 hours waiting to be transported to Nationwide Childrens Hospital. After arriving at Nationwide, he was immediately taken to the NICU there where he was evaluated and put on breathing assistance via low flow nasal canula. Sometime during the first evening Brady was here he started to have spells of apnea. During these spells his oxygen level would drop tremendously and he would need startled to get him to start breathing correctly again. Friday morning they moved him from the nasal canula to a ventilator due to his apnea spells getting more frequent. At this point in time all hopes for surgery were put on hold until they could pinpoint what exactly was causing the apnea spells. They covered every basis from blood cultures for infections to chromosomal issues to brain activity possibly causing seizures. All the tests came back clean and the surgical team and nurse practitioners decided it may just be the weight of his omphalocele causing apnea due to extra pressure on his lungs. The picture below is Brady attached to the EEG (brain activity machine). Even though he had the EEG and being on a vent he still seemed in high spirits and let mom and daddy get a few good pictures with his eyes open.
On Monday of the following week the doctors decided to take Brady off of the ventilator. He was able to be tube free on his face for around 24 hours. On Tuesday morning he started to grunt when trying to breathe and his respiratory rate started to sky rocket . His rate was anywhere from 70 breathes a minute to 130 breathes a minute, and due to this he was put on a high flow nasal canula for pressure. When the high flow nasal canula wasn't enough they moved him to a C-Pap machine that would provide better help for what he needed. The C-Pap brought his respiratory rate down and we started to get prepared for surgery the following Monday. Nothing much changed the rest of the week, until Saturday evening, just 36 hours before he was expected to go to the ER. On Saturday evening Brady's heart rate started to rise along with his body temperature. They did more lab work (24 hours before surgery) and found that his white blood cell count was elevated. This result, along with his increased heart rate and temperature all pointed to a possible infection. With the possibility of infection, the surgery for Monday was called off. This was the third time we had scheduled surgery and had to cancel, it was a very hard pill to swallow. The possibility of infection cause them to do another blood culture to check for infections. During this time they also did a spinal tap to check for meningitis and a urinalysus to check for a UTI. Monday rolled around and after 12 days in the NICU, Brady's mother and I had to drive back home, which is two hours away, due to school and work. Leaving our 12 day old son alone was devastating, one of the hardest things either of us have ever had to endure.
This is his C-Pap machine, he had this on for a week.
After returning home on Monday evening, we got our things together thinking that surgery would be out the window. Brady was still on the C-Pap and getting to the point where the Schuster would no longer be possible. On Tuesday evening I received a call from the surgeons to find out some good news. They were going to ween him off of the C-Pap overnight and give him one last shot for surgery on Wednesday morning. The C-Pap was removed around 6pm Tuesday evening and to our surprise, he was still stable on Wednesday morning! He was able to get into the operating room Wednesday and he completed the first stage of his closure. If all things go to plan he will have the next stages of closure on Friday the 30th, followed by the following Monday, Thursday and finishing up closure on Saturday. We are staying hopeful for all things to go as planned, if we do our little man will have full closure before he comes home.
Brady's mother and I will be using any money raised for his medical expenses and travel 2 hours back and forth. It will also be put towards meals while at the hospital and lodging. She is currently in school for respiratory therapy and unable to work, I have used all my vacation available so any time I take at this point is unpaid. I am currently working longer shifts to make up as many hours as I can, and we will be spending our weekends at the hospital with him. Brady also has a 6 year old brother at home that is missing him and us like crazy when we're gone. Any contributions would mean the world to us, they can be big or small, we are grateful regardless of size. If money is tight, we'll gladly accept a prayer in its place!
Below are just a few more pictures of our 12 days spent with him in the NICU.
This is big brother Elijah, he's so proud of his little brother.
This is mommy giving Brady kisses before he was wheeled in for his first surgery.
This is Brady back in his room after the first stage of surgery, he did well according to the surgeon.
If you've made it this far, I commend you as it was a very long post. Megan, Elijah, Brady and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through our story, best wishes and God bless!