Our Sweet "Heart": Before and After

Friday, November 13, 2009

Before and After

Before and after getting his chest closed. He's still looking a little rough.

Maddox started the day off by getting his chest closed. He handled it pretty well and only needed a little tweaking on his vent support and meds to accomodate the change.
They took him off the paralytic, but have him on narcotics and sedatives to help with the pain. He did have his eyes open for a while today and responded to our voices and touch. By tonight a lot of the swelling had gone down, so they took him off the diuretic drip and will do scheduled boluses of the diuretic to get the remaining fluid off.

There was a concern today at one point because his temperature was very low. It wasn't clear if this was due to the heating apparatus above his bed being shut off for a couple of hours while he got his chest closed or if it is possible that he could be showing signs of a blood infection. Due to the concern of a possible infection they took cultures of everything-blood, urine, secretions from his ET tube, etc... and sent them away to the lab. We should know within the next 48 hours if there is something going on. In the mean time he is on several antibiotics to kill off the possible infection.

Tonight before we left for bed he was doing well and they were going to try to start his feeds again since they had shut them off before he got his chest closed. We are praying that he stays nice and calm and just heals like he should with NO infections or anything extra to deal with.

We sure love our little Maddox and are so grateful to be at this point with him. He is such a blessing to our family. May the Lord continue to bless and heal you Mad, so we can go home together and introduce you to your brothers and sister. Can't wait to be a normal family again!! Keep praying for continuing progress!

3 comments:

The LovellsNovember 14, 2009 at 8:14 AM
He looks fantastic!
ReplyDelete
Replies
McGrathsNovember 14, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Oh, that BABY!
ReplyDelete
Replies
thepainterfamilyNovember 14, 2009 at 9:24 AM
this is wonderful! I hope that the antibiotics take care of any possible issues and that his recovery is smooth!!

I am crossing my fingers for a Christmas at home, like you mentioned!!

It's amazing really, when you stop to think about it all, just how far you've come!
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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.