Jack Jensen's Blog: Having fun at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Monday, February 25, 2008

Having fun at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Jack made his first ever road trip - a 6.5 hr drive from Maryland to West Simsbury, CT. We're spending some time at my parents' house so Jack can get some extra attention and I can get ahead with some work. Aside from me getting a nasty cold the first day here things have been great. My parents moved Jack's crib into their room so I don't get him sick and I am wearing a face mask and not holding him (which is KILLING ME) but so far he's not sick. On the plus side I am getting LOTS of sleep at night so I can't complain!

We've been having fun taking photos of Jack. In just the past few days he's found his legs and feet and plays with them constantly, he learned how to make a RAZZ today and he looks like he's packing on the pounds. My mom took over his feeds since I've been sick and she insisted on trying things her way. Despite my grumbles she went ahead and wouldn't you know the kid is eating 100 ml at a time now! That's with rice cereal mixed in and he's eating a lot more solids (applesauce, sweet potatoes, bananas and even some homemade mashed potatoes). I guess mom does know best...or in this case...grandma!

Here are some new pictures. My dad thought his PJs looked like a jail uniform so he decorated them accordingly! There are also pics of Jack with his Godparents, Aunt Catherine (James' sis) & Uncle George (my bro). There are also pics of Jack with his great uncle, Len Wahl (my Godfather) and also Jack's Uncle Jeff (Catherine's husband).

We miss James very much but we're enjoying some time away from Frederick for the first time in a year!

~Vic

1 comment:

The Nanny said...: He is soooooo cute! Hope you get better soon!; February 26, 2008 at 10:26 AM

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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.