Our Sweet "Heart": Alissa and Maddox are being operated on!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Alissa and Maddox are being operated on!

Everyone,

This is Jeff. I know, weird, but since Alissa can't blog while she is under general aenesthsia or however you spell it, I thought I would update everyone. Alissa and Maddox are being operated on as we speak. Obviously, Maddox is taking the full brunt of the operation but please have both in your prayers.

We know the power of prayer and are grateful to everyone for their support. We have faith that everything will go well and that Maddox will be born healthy enough to have heart surgery and have a normal happy life. I am nervous as anything for both of them but trust that they are in good hands with the best doctors in the world who will be directed by the Lord.

Thank-you again everyone and I will post how the procedure went later.

Jeff

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Maddox Revere Dixon

Welcome to our story of modern day miracles. We have seen first hand the wonders of our Heavenly Father and have been joined with people all over in earnest prayer for a baby boy... our Miracle Maddox.

Maddox was diagnosed prenatally with Aortic Stenosis and Mitral Regurgitation. We found out at 27 weeks gestational age that he had a congenital heart defect. By 29 weeks he was in heart failure and had developed hydrops(fluid under the skin, in his abdomen, and around his heart). The plan was to deliver him at 30 weeks via c-section and after birth attempt to get him stable enough to try to open up his aortic valve. We were also given the option of doing nothing and delivering vaginally once he had passed away, which they thought would be soon. The doctors gave him a less than 1% chance of survival if we tried to intervene. We started planning his funeral. The week we were scheduled to have the c-section we were given the option of flying out to Boston to do a fetal intervention where they would essentially operate on Maddox in the womb. The doctors in Boston weren't even sure that Maddox would be alive once we got off the plane. Two days later we had the fetal intervention where they ballooned open the aortic valve, put a stent in the atrial septum as well as a hole above the stent, and removed some of the fluid in Maddox's belly. Maddox was the 9th baby with his unique heart condition to have undergone this type of intervention. It was successful, and Maddox was delivered at 37 weeks in Boston, where he underwent open heart surgery at 3 weeks of age. At two months of age Maddox came home to Texas. We are now trying to adjust to the new normal: multiple weekly doctors' visits, g-tube feeds, medications administered throughout the day, insurance claims, and including our three other children in the care of their amazing little brother. What an adventure. More surgery is in the Mad-man's future, but he has a future, and for that we will be forever grateful.