Cade’s Story

Site created on April 11, 2019

Our sweet baby boy Cade Steven Nyquist was born on 4/10 at 7:23am, of course right after I was finishing up a night shift at Buffalo hospital was when he decided it was time to enter the world, at least we didn’t have to go far to get him delivered! He was in a hurry to get here, his labor and delivery lasted about 3.5 hours and was rather uncomplicated. Immediately after birth he was making a “grunting” sound as he was breathing, but all of his other vital signs appeared normal so we continued with the normal skin-to-skin and post-delivery care. About 3 hours after delivery Cade started having trouble keeping his temperature high enough to be in the normal range and his oxygen level was dropping. After a few interventions he was eventually started on antibiotics for suspected sepsis (based on his and my vital signs & lab work) and high-flow oxygen in the Level II Nursery, which he was doing well with but he wasn’t able to be weaned from it as hoped and his oxygen needs continued to grow as time progressed. It was then determined that he needed to be transferred to a hospital with a higher level of care, so Cade earned himself an ambulance ride to the NICU at Children’s hospital in Minneapolis. 

A lot of interventions and tests started immediately upon his arrival to the NICU it’s hard to even begin to recollect everything that has occurred so far (and I’m far from a NICU nurse so bare with me) Cade was intubated shortly upon his arrival to start him on a ventilator to assist with his breathing. He also had a central IV placed, called a PICC line through his scalp so he could receive IV fluids, medications to keep his blood pressure up, blood products, pain medications, medications to keep him sedated, steroids and continue his antibiotics. An umbilical line was also placed so he could have his lab work drawn without having to repeatedly use a needle to draw his blood and monitor his blood pressure internally. He also had an orogastric (OG) tube placed to keep his stomach empty due to him vomiting bile. Although it was suspected he was septic from an infection of an unknown source, nothing was yet determined or confirmed as to what he was sick with so he has received multiple tests to rule out other underlying issues, including studies of his stomach/intestines, heart and spinal fluid. 

Unfortunately his oxygen needs continued to grow and he was switched to a ventilator called an oscillator, which helps him to breathe extremely fast (about 480 breaths/minute) he is doing well on this and we are hoping he can be weaned from it soon. Cade’s blood cultures also confirmed that he was fighting an infection from E.Coli, we have no exact way of knowing how he came in contact with it, but now his antibiotics can be adjusted to make sure they fight it! He is unable to be given any breast milk at this point, so he was started on fats and nutrition (TPN) through his PICC line. 

We are praying for the day we get to hold Cade in our arms again and his big brother Eli gets to meet him! We have been beyond blessed with excellent care between both Buffalo Hospital and Children’s NICU, we are so thankful for that. We also can’t express enough how wonderful our families have been through all of this, there is not enough thanks in the world for them. We will do our best to post updates on here to keep everyone in the loop. Please keep sending positive thoughts and prayers Cade’s way! 

With Love, 
Katie & Chris

Newest Update

Journal entry by Katie Nyquist

Hi Everyone, 

As many of you already know, after 61 days in the hospital Cade is now officially home (finally!!!) We are so incredibly happy that we are all under one roof and we are absolutely loving every single second with him! He is such a happy baby and he never has a shortage of smiles! His big brother is also loving having Cade home, he’s completely smitten with him and loves to help out with anything related to “baby.” 

Cade’s surgery for his G-tube placement went smoothly and he is now getting fed via bottle with breastmilk and high calorie formula mixed due to his inability to gain weight on breastmilk alone and whatever he is unable to finish via bottle he is fed through his G-tube. Cade’s breathing has been improving slowly and his diaphragm is no longer fully paralyzed, but rather moving in an “uncoordinated fashion,” which is also an improvement. We will be continuing to go to Children’s for appointments with both the pulmonologist and gastroenterologist. 

The past two months have been by far the most challenging times of our lives. There really is no way to describe the impact it has had on us, we have learned so much about life and about ourselves. We are so thankful for our families, they have been incredibly supportive and shown us nothing but love during this time in our lives. We specifically want to thank both of our parents and Chris’s sister and her husband for watching Eli on multiple occasions, we can’t imagine going through this without their help. We want to thank anyone who sent us cards, money, gifts, well wishes and prayers while Cade was in the hospital. There are not enough thanks in the world to give all of you. We are so grateful to have been shown so much kindness and compassion. We have high hopes that everything with Cade’s health will continue to improve as he grows and it all will be smooth sailing from here on out! 

With Love, 
Katie & Chris 
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