Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

On September 15th, Katy and Andy found out that Baby Jacob has a life-threatening condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a very serious condition in which a hole in the diaphragm allows abdominal organs to move into the chest restricting lung development. In Jacob's case, his liver is also squishing his heart and displacing other organs. CDH occurs in about 1 out of every 3,000 pregnancies and has a mortality rate of 50%. To make matters more complicated, Jacob has Right-Sided CDH which only occurs in about 10% of CDH cases and is typically more severe. They are so blessed to have found this out when they did, or Baby Jacob would have surely died at birth.

They will be delivering at UW Hospital in Seattle and later transferred to Seattle Children’s. Thank you to everyone who has already begun praying, and everyone who will now. Baby Jacob is blessed to have all of you thinking and praying for him.

Welcome To Holland-Sept 18, 2011

On September 15th Katy and Andy found out that Baby Jacob has a life-threatening condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a condition in which a hole in the diaphragm, or in Jacob's case an undeveloped diaphragm, allows abdominal organs to move into the chest and restrict lung development. It is also squishing his heart and the aorta. We are so blessed to have found this out now or Baby Jacob would have died at birth.


They are going to be getting further diagnosis at UW, possibly a fetal MRI, and later delivering @ UW Hospital in Seattle. Shortly after birth, if needed, Jacob will be put on a ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) device, a temporary bypass technique used to oxygenate the blood and allow the lungs to rest and develop. Luckily, Seattle is one of a few places that has the device.


They aren't sure what to expect in the future days/weeks, but their perinatologist says they are in the best of hands. Both UW Hospital & Seattle Children's are renowned for their pediatric care. Thank you to everyone who has already begun praying, and everyone who will now. Baby Jacob is blessed to have all of you thinking and praying for him.


Here is a very informative site describing Jacob's problems, prognosis, and what to expect in the upcoming weeks/months:


http://pedsinreview.aappublications.org/content/20/10/e67.full


A Facebook Posting From Debbie, Katy's mom:

About 10 days ago we suspected there may be something wrong with Baby Jacob.  Katy was scared and asked what we were going to do if it was something really bad.  I sent her the email printed below but I really believed that the baby would only need a small surgery and all would be fine.  Tests have revealed that Jacob can't live without immediate and extreme measures.  As it seems, we are going to "Holland" unless God, in His infinite mercy will reroute us to "Italy".  As you can imagine, we drift between denial and terrifying reality.


It is clear that financial resources far exceeding all our family's and extended family's will be needed to care for Baby Jacob.  I hope I will be able to open a fund at Bank of America for people to donate.  I will post the information as soon as possible.

Below is the email "Welcome to Holland" I sent to Katy on September 8th and her response:

From: djcountry77@hotmail.com
To: krondeau88@hotmail.com
Subject: Welcome to Holland
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 04:37:18 -0700

Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising
a child with a disability--to try to help people who
have not shared that unique experience to understand
it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you are going to have a baby, it's like planning
a fabulous vacation trip--to Italy. You buy a bunch
of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The
Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in
Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.
It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally
arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several
hours later, the plane lands, the stewardess comes in
and says "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland? I
signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy.
All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've
landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to
a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of
pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different
place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you
must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a
whole new group of people you would have never met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than
Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been
there for a while and you catch your breath, you look
around, and you begin to notice that Holland has
windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has
Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from
Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful
time they had there. And for the rest of your life,
you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go.
That's what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away,
because the loss of that dream is a very significant
loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you
didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy
the very special, the very lovely things about
Holland.

-Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

I have remembered this story from many, many years ago.  It made an impression on me.  I wanted to share it with you.

Katy, I don't think you're going to Holland but you asked what we would do if you did.  We would go with you, stick together, find our way together and discover many beautiful things about Holland.  God would never let you arrive there if you couldn't navigate through it.  He would walk with you all the years of your life.

Katy's response on September 8th: "Thanks, Mom. It's wonderful to have such a supportive family. I'm thankful to have visited Italy, and I just hope Holland isn't on God's itinerary for me."

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