Porter was born in Watertown on December 3rd via c-section a week and a half prior to my scheduled c-section. He struggled with oxygen so they took him upstairs right away to get him the help he needed. When I got out of recovery they had already called Sioux Falls and set up a plane ride for him to go to the NICU. I got to spend about 30 minutes holding his hand while he had oxygen over him until the flight team arrived. He laid there limp because all of his energy went into breathing. Once he got to Sioux Falls, he was pretty much weaned back to room air off the c-pap but Porter has liked to keep everyone on their toes since he was born! He started to get a distended bowel that was sticking up in his tummy & he didn’t want to eat. Distended bowels are often common in babies that have had oxygen because it is forcing that air down their passage. Tuesday, December 5th morning about 3:40 AM I was still in the hospital in Watertown and saw him spitting up green stuff on the live camera. With fast action from the NICU staff, they called the team in and decided it was stomach bile. They ordered an x ray and things started rolling to get a PICC line and discontinue feedings . I got out of the Watertown hospital about 10:30 and started for Sioux Falls with my mom and dad. When we got to Brookings we got a devastating phone call from Jordan that after the PICC line was placed, the x-ray showed that his bowel had perforated and was leaking everything into his abdomen. This quickly became an emergent situation. It wasn’t looking like I would get to see or hold Porter before this huge surgery, but the staff heard I was walking through the door and kept him back for two minutes. Jordan came RUNNING through the main floor of the Surgical Tower to get me with a wheelchair and get me to see my baby boy. I got to pick up my very sick little boy, snap a couple pictures, and off he went. Dr. Ryckman has been an absolute God send throughout this entire process. He kept us informed throughout the surgery with every little thing. It was so inflamed in there that it was difficult, but he ended up putting in an ileostomy bag so that the bowel could heal where it was perforated. He got a couple of biopsies while he was in there to see if this was Hirschsprungs Disease or what we would be looking at. In the meantime my parents, Jordan’s mom, and Jordan’s dad and stepmom were all the waiting room. Dr. Ryckman explained everything and once Porter was completely out of surgery we would be able to go see him in the NICU for recovery. Thankfully every grandparent got to see him! Porter started weaning off the ventilator the next day and did very well! We had a few bumps in the road with getting the gunk out of his belly with suction, but that’s just how Porter has written his story! Once things calmed down with that we started with 5mL feedings and he took off from there. December 16th Porter graduated from the NICU and we got to come home so he could meet his very excited big sister! The learning curve really started when we had to learn the ileostomy bag changes on our own. Porter’s Nurse Practictioner Sarah has been amazing throughout the entire process with this! January 11th Porter went for labs to see if he still needed to be on his sodium and everything looked great. By the next morning (Jan. 12th) he had pretty well stopped feeding and been super fussy. With the incoming storm his team decided we should get to Sioux Falls and be admitted for the weekend. It took THREE HOURS to get an IV in Porter. THAT fast he dehydrated and I felt terrible for not only Porter, but the team trying to get an IV in a screaming 1 1/2 month old. We ended up staying in until Monday and switched to a formula that would be easier on his belly. Fast forward to now and Porter has been doing so well! He is putting on weight and we are one week out from his pull through surgery! March 7th at 8 AM he will go back for a lengthy surgery. Dr. Ryckman and his team will start at his bottom and work up to find the “good part of the colon”. This will be lengthy because they have to biopsy every little bit to find the Ganglion Cells (nerves). Biopsies take atleast a half hour to get back. Once they find the good colon, hopefully it isn’t too far up from his bottom and they can resect the bad and pull the good down to his bottom and reconnect it. We are hoping that he is big enough now for this surgery and we can get rid of the ileostomy bag too. We are asking for so many prayers for Porter, his entire surgery team, Dr. Ryckman, our families, and especially big sister Teagan who has a hard time understanding things with the hospital since my dad unexpectedly passed away. We know that he will be in the best of hands but it is so hard to hand over your little guy! We are so thankful for the quick actions after my C-section from Dr. Hopper, Dr. Darnall, operating room staff, all nurses, respiratory team, the amazing flight team, and the incredible NICU team! The NICU is never anywhere that you want to end up, but the intense support there makes you really feel like you are in the right place. We are so thankful that God had a plan for Porter and the timing of everything was impeccable! If we wouldn’t have landed in the NICU to begin with, we aren’t sure if we would have our little guy with us anymore.
The support is overwhelming, but it so hard to respond to everyone as things are happening so we figured this would be the easiest so nobody is left out! Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers!
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