Hayden's Heart will be honoring Brouke and her family at our upcoming fundraiser in Williamsport PA in November (more details on that event soon). This is her story:
When we found out we were pregnant for the third time we were so excited. We both were hoping for a girl we have 2 boys and was hoping to end with a girl. By the time i was 7 weeks pregnant i started bleeding my first thought was we lost our miracle growing inside me. When i went to the doctors i found out the heart rate was stronger than ever but i had a tear on my placenta. I was put on very light duty for a couple weeks but after those couple weeks i was still bleeding so the doctor reassured me that it would heal. So when i went back i would hear that the tear healed up but i had a subcorianic hematoma blood clot. After that healed i would then need to get a ultrasound at 10 1/2 weeks to see if i needed stitches to hold our miracle in because i had a leap done after i had our oldest son. The ultrasound recealed that everything looked good with my cervix and would not stitches but then i heard the news that would forever change everything. The ultrasound revealed the baby has extra fluid on the back of his/her neck. So what does this mean we believe it may be whats called a cystic hygroma. They referred me to geisinger because at that point i was considered high risk. I started going to geisinger for all my appointments and would soon learn that the cystic hygroma has grown from the back of the babies head all the to his/her bottom and was growing and was quite large 5-7cm is very large for a small fetus. I would go to my regular doctors only for fetal heart beat to give me piece and comfort in between my appointments to geisinger. About 11 1/2 weeks i had a test done whats called a maternity 21 test and they took my blood and it tells them if the baby would have any type of down syndrome or missing or extra chromosome. It takes a couple weeks for the results to come back. My genetic councel called me and went over the results with me, i am pleased to tell you that the test came back normal and she then would ask if we wanted to know the sex and i was in complete shock and asked how you is that possible and when they run the test they check the chromosomes and it can tell tge gender of the baby. I said yeah and she said a girl, i broke down and started crying filled with joy. So the weeks past and every visit seem to get worse with the cystic hygroma. Then we decided to get a second opinion after a doctor asked me if i wanted to terminate my pregnancy and that there was nothing that could be done. We went to bethlehem pa at saint lukes and by then i was around 18 1/2 weeks and it showed our baby girl had fluid around her right lung and a mild amount around her left lung and then we heard some devasting news that would change us forever, the left side of her heart was smaller than normal and there is narrowing in her aorta also known as HLHS. We were devasted and soon i would learn that i would become a heart mom. So then my regular doctors wouldnt see me because i was high risk. So i would travel to geisinger a couple times a week for fetal monitoring and non stress test. They took us on a tour through nicu and we had a counsel meeting when i was shy 2 days of being 32 weeks pregnant, and we met with my mfm doctor, my social worker, cardiac doctor and the cardiac surgeon and the neonatal doctor. They went over based on her echo they would operate on her heart and what they were going to do. I had gotten polly which is extra fluid so i was measuring 43 weeks at 32 weeks. I continued to go to all my appiontments and it was april 2nd and i had my appointments for my non stress test and i had to go to obgyn to sign consent for my c section and when the doctor put the doppler on my belly to listen to her heart rate it was high in the 160-170's so they sent me up to labor and delivery and they monitored me abd the nurse asked me if i had been contracting like this long and i said yes since feburary. It was going on 1:00pm and the nurse said i think were going to take her so she called billy to let him know they were taking her at 2:00pm. So he sped to geisinger because we lived about 45 minutes away. Meanwhile they started to get me prepped and ready for my c section. Billy made it they wheeled me in the OR room and billy came in and at 2:09pm i heard cries and it brought tears to my eyes, she was beautiful. Brouke Jaelyn Bryan Hammons was finally here she was beautiful in ever way weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces or 6 pounds 9 1/2 ounces 18 inches long they gave us 2 different weights because she had fluid on her. Soon then i would become a nicu mom. For the couple weeks she was at geisinger i drove everyday to see her after i was discharged. Then April 9th we went out like every visit and the nurse asked me if i wanted to hold her and of course i made sure it was ok with the doctor so that was the very first we held our beautiful miracle. April 11th changed our day forever, i was visitng with our daughter and was asked to come with the doctors we went in a small room and the cardiac doctor told me there was nothing they could do for our daughter and that she had to be life flighted as soin as possible. I called billy and told him and had him on speaker phone and he said you guys knew prior and are now telling us and they never answered. They told us they have a hospital where they were sending her we had our choice of any hospital but they needed to know now, because noone was in admissions to rearange things we went with the choice they were planning on sending her to. April 12th she was life flighted She arrived at Nemours Alfred I. Dupont hospital for children in Wilimington DE. We met her heart surgeon and he discussed everything with us the plan of the operation. We finally were able to see her she was so tiny and very sick. She was on nitric oxide because she had high pressured lungs because when she was born geusinger did not do what they werr suppise to do and her lungs were flooded and scared. She had whats the hybrid operation because she wouldnt of made it through the norwood operation. She did well with that. Then she got really sick with NEC and she was very sick and eventually recovered. She had surgery to have a g tube put in and nisis surgery to prevent acid reflux. She then got sick again only this was worse than before with NEC again and i recieved a phone call at 5:30 am that they werent sure if she would make it. She recovered from that and was doing well and then the day came for her norwood operation. August 19th we held her until it was time to carry her back to the OR doors and then i would hand her off to anasthea at 8:12 am she went back and didnt come out until 3:30 pm. The surgery went well her heart surgeon had to cut out narrowing in her right PA because she had PA Bands on for 3 months it caused narrowing. She cam off the bypass machine with ease but she had alot of bleeding from scare tissue. She came out and we were able to see her and she was stable while they were trying to find the right balance for her. Then the doctor on that day was giving her blood because she had lost alot of blood, her chest tube container was filling up so fast. Then as the doctor was giving her blood and then cleared the line her blood pressured dropped in the 40's and then she flat lined for 2-3 minutes and the doctor began doing chest compressions and yelled to get the team and he brought our baby girl back to us and the next hours and minutes would be crucial. They were having trouble keeping her blood pressure stable and if they couldnt control it she would go on the curciut and her heart surgeon explained that if she went on that the outcome wouldnt be good because she would need a blood thinner called heprin and because she was already losing so much blood it wouldbt of been good. She never went on it she became stable and started to do really well and they eventually started feeds going up one a day but then she started having diahrea so they stopped her feeds completely.
To be continued......... |
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