Jack Jensen's Blog: Happy 30th Birthday Uncle George!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Happy 30th Birthday Uncle George!

Happy 30th Birthday to Jack's Godfather (and my brother) - Uncle George!!! Yesterday after work my mom (who was visiting us in MD), Jack and I made the long trip to Connecticut. Jack watched about 6 hrs of Elmo but it kept him happy for such a long drive. We tried to shut it off but then we heard Jack's chanting from the darkness of the backseat, "Mo, Mo, Mo, Mo..." We finally arrived very late Thursday night. Today we totally surprised my brother by showing up at his office. We sent Jack in with 3 helium balloons. The reaction from George made it well worth the long trip. There are pictures above of George, Jack and my dad at the office (George works for our dad).

We spent some time there then went to George's apartment for about an hour before going to dinner. George has the most amazing aquariums. I wish I had taken some pictures. Jack had a blast looking at the 90 gallon tank of brightly colored fish and then the 2 smaller (40 gallon?) tanks that were filled with hundreds of baby fish that had hatched over the past 2 months.

Finally, we all headed out to East Side Restaurant in New Britain to celebrate George's Bday. It's this really cool German restaurant. Jack totally loved it. Every time someone ordered a beer and it came out the whole restaurant would sing (see the link to the restaurant). The first 2 times it scared Jack to death but after that he thought it was a game. When George ordered a 'boot' they made a huge deal and everyone was chanting. Jack really seemed to like the fuss over the boot and kept trying to kiss it. The pics we got were a riot. Just as a disclaimer - he NEVER drank any of the beer (despite his best attempts to get at it). Towards the end of the meal they had an acordian player come out. Jack was grooving and tried to give him some crackers. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a tip or a bribe to let him touch some of the keys! Whatever the case, the acordian player saw Jack's reaction and came over to give him a private concert of "Old McDonald" and everyone sang along. It was a really fun night and Jack even got a German hat at the end (don't tell him it's really a hat for ladies!).

I'm so happy we came to visit and got to see George for his big birthday. We love you lots! HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!!

1 comment:

Fer said...: LOVE the pictures!!!!; February 28, 2009 at 1:10 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.