Jack Jensen's Blog: Happy Birthday Grammie!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Happy Birthday Grammie!

Happy birthday Mom/Grammie!!!! Jack tried to pose for a few photos but he's still under the weather and wasn't feeling like cooperating. He is fighting off a virus. He's a tough kid though and I'm totally amazed that he's so strong. This is his first cold...EVER. I was a wreck yesterday taking his temp constantly (it was elevated) and I finally took him to the pediatrician. They said it's a virus that's going around and the older kids are telling them it's a headache, muscle aches, sore throat and eventually it moves into the chest. Jack's fever already broke so we're hoping he knocked it out quickly.

Anyway, back to my mom...it's late and I can't focus! Jack wants to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and tell you that you're the best Grammie ever. My mom spent so much time with me when I was pregnant, when Jack was in the hospital both times and after he came home she helped me for 2 months when things were really difficult for me to manage on my own during the day. If I turn out to be half as good of a mom to Jack, he'll be a lucky kid. You're the best mom!

Here are some pics. Oh yeah - Jack is standing and cruising EVERYWHERE. This morning I put this huge Elmo birthday card from Jack's Aunt Catherine on top of a table. I went to make coffee and I heard "ELLL MO! ELLL MO!" and he managed to get across the room and was trying to stand up to reach the card. I swear it was all of 5 seconds! Also - Jack had his first "big boy" bath without the baby bathtub. He was so excited and splashed so much I was totally soaked!!

3 comments:

Paula said...: Sorry to hear that Jack has a virus, but the fact that he made it pass the age of one without having one before is awesome! You must be taking excellent germ avoidance precautions and Jack must have a pretty good immune system working for him.

So I hope he feels better soon. BTW, great sign...Jack has beautiful handwriting.

Paula (the other Wyatt's mom); September 5, 2008 at 7:20 AM
Fer said...: Sorry to read about Jack's virus. I hope he feels better soon.

And happy bday to your mom Vicky :); September 5, 2008 at 9:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Sorry to hear about Jacks' virus. I hope he feels better soon!

He is absolutely adorable, Vicki! I haven't been to check on him in a while and I cannot believe how big he is!

Absolutely gorgeous!; September 5, 2008 at 8:26 PM

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Jack's Diagnosis and Recovery

At our 19 week ultrasound Jack was diagnosed with CDH. One week later James and I went to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. for more extensive analysis. We had a fetal MRI and saw that his hernia was on the left side (the most common) and at that time his liver was 'up' or in his chest. His heart was pushed to the right in his chest and he had a normal sized right lung and a very small left lung (about 1/5 the normal size). Overall his CDH was classified as severe with a Lung to Head (LHR) ratio of 0.8. His echocardiogram showed that his heart was beating strong and there was no underlying congenital heart defect. His amnio was also normal. The prognosis was 20-50% chance of survival at birth. The struggle we faced with this diagnosis was that there is little correlation between prenatal diagnostic test results and outcome at birth. Some babies with mild defects do poorly and some with severe defects pull through and do very well. All we could do was try to be optimistic and hope and pray that Jack would be a strong baby and fight hard. On August 20, 2007 John Verner Jensen "Jack" was born by C-section at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. Within hours of birth he was placed on ECMO (heart-lung bypass). He had a 10 day run on ECMO and went to his hernia repair surgery on this machine. He was missing 90% of his left diaphragm, had his entire stomach, spleen, and parts of his small and large intestines and liver in his chest and he required a gortex patch. Jack came out of surgery off ECMO but with the cannulas still in place until later that night. He had a really hard night after surgery and we nearly lost him. We were later told his blood gases should have been unsurvivable and that it was pure will and not medicine that saved him. After 81 days in hospital we brought Jack home breathing room air and needing only an NG (naso-gastric) feeding tube. After 27 days home he reherniated and we had to go back for emergency surgery at Johns Hopkins. His awesome surgeons literally patched him back up and after another 16 days in hospital he returned home on Dec 21, 2007 - just in time for his first Christmas. Since then Jack has tackled his eating issues and is NG-tube free! He does not require any medication. We are extremely grateful for his incredible medical team and all his friends and family for their support, kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Jack's CarePage chronicles his day-to-day journey from diagnosis to approximately 6 months old (before we started blogging). See the link below.