Kate and Cohen were born at 35 weeks on December 15,2008. The c-section went well,and both Kate and Cohen got to stay in the room with mommy and daddy. We came home with our bundles of joy on December 18th. They are such great babies…they were nursing well,and doing the things they were supposed to do. December 19th they saw their pediatrician and she ordered a bilirubin level because Kate was a little yellow. Her level was high,so we went to the NICU and we stayed for 2 days with her under some bili lights. Her White blood cell count was also low at that point,which worried me,but she was discharged 2 days later and it was up a little to the very low end of “normal”. For the next 2 weeks,they were angels…sleeping 4 hours a night,smiling,playing and being beautiful! Saturday morning,January 10th,Kate stopped eating,and started breathing really fast and hard,so we called the pediatrician. She told us to call 911 since she was having trouble breathing. We were admitted to the NICU again,and started immediately on antibiotics. They did a lumbar puncture on arrival,and it showed that Kate had late onset GBS meningitis. We immediately started penicillin,and she was on a little nasal canula. By Sunday morning,she was on a ventilator to help her breathe,and she had started seizing due to the inflammation in her brain. We started her on anti-seizure medication and she was transfused with blood and IVIG that day. Her WBC was down to 1.1. That day was the worst day of our life,and we thank the Lord that Kate made it through that day and stayed here with us. Cohen was admitted that night with the same symptoms,but his cultures were negative,and he was treated with prophylactic antibiotics for 3 days and went back home. Kate was intubated for a week,and continued to have seizures,and was on a Versed drip at one point to try to stop them. She started getting better and was finally extubated,and started to eat and make progress. However,on Monday,January 26th,Kate had a cranial ultrasound and it showed some dilated ventricles in her brain,and a condition called Encephalomalacia. Kate basically has holes in her brain because it was swollen from the infection so long. She stayed in the NICU on antibiotics for 28 days so that we could make sure it was gone. We came home on February 9th,but on February12th,Kate got sick again,and we were readmitted to the NICU with RSV.
Kate has been left with severe brain damage resulting in blindness,seizures,cerebral palsy,and many other handicaps for which she takes 9 different prescriptions every day. Her medical expenses are extensive and will only continue to grow during her lifetime.
When Kate was 3 months old she traveled 86 miles one way every day for 8 weeks to receive Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments (HBOT). These treatments proved to be helpful by improving the blood flow in her brain. The 8 week long treatments were repeated two more times. Each of these treatments cost $200. It is the family’s hope to raise enough money to purchase Kate’s own HBOT chamber. This would allow her to receive treatments twice a day in her own home forever and try to improve her quality of life as the treatments did before. We thank you all for your prayers,thoughts,support,and ask you to please continue your prayers for Kate and the rest of our family!
