Wyatt James Koger, A Fighter from Birth: Medical Updates

Friday, May 1, 2009

Medical Updates

On Wednesday we had an appointment with the hematologist. Wyatt has always had a high white blood cell count from birth. Normal for him is around 19,000 and high is 35,000. High (I think) for a normal baby is around 10,000. The doctors always said it was stress. Well, to put my mind at ease we had a consultation with a hematologist at Hopkins... Dr. K. He was awesome!! He said it may be stress, but he would like to find out the reason. It may be steroids (he is on Flovent), or other conditions, but he is pretty sure the reason is NOT malignant. So he is going to draw blood when Wyatt is in the hospital for some tests and then we will take it from there.

We have had an adventure with the MRI people. Wyatt's last patch was attached by wire and Wyatt has a shunt. His MRI is scheduled for this Monday and the doctors would like him to stay overnight and have the upper GI series done the next day. When the lady called to tell me about the MRI, I asked if it was safe since Wyatt has wire in him. She said, "I didn't know???" and will get back to us. Well she did not get back to us, so I called every day this week with no one returning my calls. Finally, our super nurse Susan called and a nurse finally called her back saying it was ok. On top of that, Wyatt's surgeon, Dr. A called our house to say it was safe and left his cell phone number for me to call if I had any questions. How sweet was that??? We are so lucky to have good doctors!!!

We will be spending the night at Hopkins on Monday and hopefully we will be finding out answers about reherniation.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Gina, Did anyone ask Dr. Ben Carson if it was OK, since his shunt is controlled by a magnet?
M; May 2, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Vicki Jensen said...: Gina,
Good luck tomorrow!! Give us a call if you guys need anything. Jack is with my parents this week so I can easily swing by if you need anything.

Vic; May 3, 2009 at 9:20 PM

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Hurdles that I faced and achieved!

After birth, I was placed on ECMO at Johns Hopkins Hospital for 13 days. On day 13, I had a surgery to repair my hernia and was removed from ECMO, but my organs would not fit in my abdomen. I had a silo for a week and then surgery to place the organs back in the abdomen. Then, part of my intestines re-herniated into my chest cavity two months later and I had another surgery to repair that. After my first surgery, I experienced an intraventricular hemorrhage in my brain and at four months old I received a VP shunt. After I was extubated, I learned that I have right vocal cord paralysis. Then I had g-tube surgery and after I finally got to go home after 5 longs months at Johns Hopkins and Mt. Washington Hospital! Only for a few weeks, though. In mid-April my intestines reherniated again and sent me into surgery. I came home, and had a long run before my THIRD reherniation in the beginning of September on Labor Day weekend in 2008. Then I was hospitalized for twice during the winter 2009 for two respiratory infections. Well, I almost lasted a year until my next surgery! Just this past June, in 2009, I had surgery to wrap my stomach around the esophagus, a nissen. This has helped with my reflux and my hiatal hernia. I will be 2 in October, I love scooting around but refuse to stand up and walk. I am a little miracle and thank God, my doctors, my nurses, family, and friends for my strength, my fight and a happy life.