Fundraising for Jamie West's Medical Needs

Jamie’s Journey

On February 9th Jamie stayed home from school with some stomach pain and overall not feeling well. That day I called his pediatrician and asked for a X-ray of his abdomen, we followed up with a doctor’s appointment afterwards. Jamie has a long history of being chronically constipated and we assumed his stomach pains were coming from needing a good bowel movement. When we got the results of the abdominal X-ray it showed what we already knew. He had a lot of stool and we needed to start a home clean out. Once home we worked on getting things moving but as the week went by he was just not improving. We followed up with another abdominal X-ray which showed some improvement but still a lot of stool. This prompted us to take him to WakeMed Garner ED on 2/14 for a more thorough clean out. Once back home he still was not improving, very tired and just laying around not eating. We followed back up with our pediatrician where they checked his blood count and for a urinary tract infection. His WBC (white blood cell) count came back extremely high at 54k and they set us to the ER immediately from the office. Once at WakeMed Children’s ER they tested him for several different things and the one thing that came back positive was a stool culture that tested for C.Diff. C.diff is a type of intestinal infection that mainly adults get after multiple rounds of antibiotics. Jamie was admitted to the children’s hospital that next day where he had a 5 day stay. Jamie was discharged on 2/20 and continued to improve and return to normal daily activities. On March 10th Jamie started not feeling well again. That night he woke up several times with extreme abdominal pain. He had his follow up appointment with his GI dr the next day. We went to that appointment with him sick vomiting and still having the abdominal pain. They checked his labs and everything looked overall normal. Jamie returned home and continued to get worse. On Tuesday 3/12 he continued to go down hill. James and I took him back to the emergency room where he tested for C.Diff again and his CT scan showed his large intestines was extremely inflamed. He was admitted to the PICU and despite treatment for the c.diff he continued to get worse. On the morning of March 15th Jamie was extremely sick. His body was beginning to go into septic shock. The doctors came in with a Pediatric surgeon and discussed with James and I that Jamie was going to need surgery to help get rid of the infection. The surgeon said since his colon had never really worked like it was supposed to (ie. Chronic constipation) he was recommending a subtotal colectomy with ileostomy. They took Jamie down for surgery where they found his colon was extremely inflamed and it was definitely the right decision to do the surgery. Jamie returned to the PICU that evening and began the recovery process. While trying to recover his labs never could get back to normal. He was needing platelet transfusions along with packed red blood cells at times. His body was not absorbing the IV fluids they were administering and the fluid was just going out into his tissues. This causes increased fluid in and around his lungs and heart. His breathing became hard and his pain was hard to manage. The surgeons came in and suggested they place a chest tube to help relieve some fluid off his lungs. The first tube was placed and they pulled about 1000mL off his right lung. We began seeing some improvement in his breathing and comfort level but he still was not bouncing back as they expected. With new chest X-rays they determined he needed a second chest tube on his left side. That was placed and his breathing become even easier but he still was having a lot of pain and discomfort. His labs still were not where they would have liked them to be and he started developing a fever. Highest temperature was 103 where they preformed multiple blood and urine cultures to fine them all negative. The surgeons went back to the drawing board and discussed what else might he need. They decided to tap the fluid on his belly which showed thick bloody fluid. They sent it off for culture which did not grow anything. The surgeons did not like the way the fluid looked and determined it was best for them to go back in and reopen Jamie up to do a good cleanse/rinse of his abdomen. Jamie’s second surgery was on March 26th where they removed 1200mL of bloody fluid along with 300mLs of blood clots. His recovery from the second surgery has been alittle quicker but definitely more pain. Jamie has since been fever free and labs are trending more normal. Through this whole journey Jamie has been so brave and courageous. He truly is my super hero. The doctors and nurses are blown away with how he is such a good advocate for his self and knows to ask questions, tell them how he would like things to be done and had excepted his ileostomy like a champ. We call his ileostomy his meatball and he has been able to tell the ostomy nurse how it should be cared for and how to change the wafer and bag. Jamie has spent his days talking to the nurses and doctors about John Deere tractors and how to care for livestock. He has kept his faith in God and talked to him several times asking for comfort and healing. Asked us to pray with him and enjoys visits from his Pastor. The nurses enjoy looking at his pictures in his room and Jamie tells them all about his farming, scouting adventures and just overall fun with family and friends. He is truly one of a kind and blessed to have so many people praying and thinking about him. Jamie still has a long road of recovery ahead of him as well as another surgery to reconnect his small intestines to the small part of the large intestines that was left. This surgery will mean they will have to reopen his abdominal wall. We know this journey is not over but God has Jamie in his healing and protective hands. We put our trust in him and know this is part of his plan. We appreciate any support you would like to offer even if it’s just a prayer for Jamie and our family.