ToolManTimTaylor... Say a prayer...

[TORQUE THIS]

Yesterday morning, Tim and his wife became new parents, they had a baby girl.

The baby is in need of medical attention and was rushed to another hospital. I have no real details as to what is really wrong, it is respitory related.

PLEASE!!!!!!!! Offer up your prayers...

[Jim]

Good luck Tim+Amy! Ill be saying one for you guys tonight....

[Warpig]

Mark, thanks for informing us, our prayers will be with Tim and his family for sure.

[DBogo]

tim mine and my familys prayers are with you, hope everything is alright

[BlkRam1]

Me and my family send our prayers, stay strong.

[Stark9802]

Tim+Amy...best of luck to you!!!!!

[PRattenbury]

Tim, Betsey and I are both praying everyone is well. Hang in there!

[TORQUE THIS]

I talked to Tim last night, their daughter went thru 9 hours of emergency surgery on Sunday. Their daughter came out of it OK, however the next week or two will be very critical.

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers...

[Jim]

Thanks for the update Mark, lets hope for the best :crossfingers:

[TORQUE THIS]

Tim put up a BIG post on the TDR as to what is happening...
"Other Forum"

[<T M T T>]

Hey guys,

Thank you eve so much for caring. I Just came too myself after being awake for 72 hours thanks to some "Sleep support" form YNH.

O.K the details,

It started wednesday when Amy had started to feel some pressure. She had a proceedure a few years ago the required some minor surgury that had created some scar tisue and dmaged some nerve endings that basicly had blocked the signal for the body to know when to start labor. She had called the doctor and explained what she had been feeling. They knew about what was done and had timed her contactions and it was ruled they were Braxton Hikks. (False precursive contractions)

Thursday came 7:30 A.M we went to the emergency room and she was monitored. After several hours and inspections it was fund that she was juust barely entering the first stage of labor and was 1 cm dialated. They sent us home and thrusday was otherwise uneventful.

Friday, Friday all day was as easy going as possible with no pains ,contractions, or sickness ... UNTIL Friday nite when I got the call from Amy about 10:00. We called the Doctor and explained what she was experiencing which was alot of pressure and parralizing pain. We soon went to the ER. After tons of tests and monitor hookups she ws in fact again in the same stage as before. (Disscouragement soon follows) We were discharged @ 2:00 Am Sturday Morning.

Saturday 3:40 Amy started writhing in pain and bleeding started and I broke every driving law known to man , woman or other. We were rushed upstairs and the same monitoring was done and she is still in the first stage and demerall was given.

4:00A.M 6 cm dialated and the baby is active adn Amy's Blood pressure is slowly dropping. 5:00 A.M 8 cm Dialated steady bloodpressure and pain is out of control epidurral adminsitered and pain still felt. At this point I want to tear my own arm off and sacrifice it to the pain gods on her behalf.

9:20 A.m Docctor aunterage rushed in and I heard "No this is for real" yelled in the hallway. I was in hysterics ... But calm :confused: The second thing i saw and heard from behind the "Masks" was eye contact from across the room and "This has to happen NOW" and "Amy we need to get the baby out now and there is no time for emergency c-section!" with this a swift motion the doctor ripped the bed's lower half off and it went flying and the process began.

9:29 Ashlynn is born with umbillical wrapped 3 times around ger neck. I Nearly hit the floor not without taking a cabinet door out with me. She takes her first breath and I melted into the floor tile grout.

Continued ........ in next post 10,000 limit hit

[<T M T T>]

9:40 I am holding her and I notice she is congested and make a remark that she sounds very congested. The nurse did another suction to get fluid out of the baby .... without success. The whisk her off to the nursery and begin to find out why.

10:00 We are greeted by a surgan that explaind why. This is where my world becomes dark

[<T M T T>]

It is explained to us that Ashlyn's esophgeal passage is terminated. It usually accompanies another set of anamolies of the same nature. I.E If it is a kidney issue there is usually a bone issue , Heart issues usually accompany Venal or vein/artery anamolies, Esophogeal usually accompany intestional and colon issues.

I was left motionless and suddenly i could not understand the english language.

[<T M T T>]

She is transported to a nearby level 4 infant intensive / trauma center unit. I suddenly remember how to outdrive Mario andretti. I look at amy and we telepathicly knew what i must do.

Off I go. Upon arrival I find my baby girl in an incubal unit with wires ,tubes and her little baby elephant toy my daughter gave her just a few short hours ago. I was greeted by a team of seurgons and the anomolies explained in a OR breifing room.

She has two anomolies that happen in one out of every 5000 births. Life threatening indeed but crrectable. This process requires immediate major surgery. 7.5 hours come to find out. Her esophogus had made an incomplete and alternative connection. She was breathing but with every breath drawn the intestinal tract was being pressurised and stomach gasses and acids can and will find their way into her lungs. First proceedure required disconnecting esophogus and making a proper stomach connection.

The second anomoly was present. Her lower intestinal tract was incomplete. Incomplete just after the colon. They need to do an emergency colostomy. Being a newborn only a few hours old this is of course off the chart in risk. Again Tim feels lifeless and I do not hear any words .. just mouths moving. They start a major IV called a Pic line

(I myself have had a Broviac cathedor installed when I was eight. A broviac is an IV inserted thru the juggular into your aortic artery>) That was option # 2 Both of which have staying power (much longer than 3 days with standard IV needle style) But they needed scans to find out which to go with due to where the esophogal anomoly is locted. A Pic lin is an IV that is sent in thru anothe main vein the same way just a different locatio like arm , or leg.

She is stabilized and I bring her down to he O.R with th attending Floor nurse @ 9:07 a.M sunday Morning (Still awake from thursday and) The handoff is complete. An emotional mes I wear a grove in the commecrical tile before I was convinced by my father in law to go to the cafe to get some food and rest. Food I did rest not.

While pacing for the next 6.5 hours I get the greeting I was hoping for for what seemed like an eternitty.

[<T M T T>]

The head seurgon had come in to the O.R Debreifing room to find me an inch or so shorter as I wore the soles of my shoes just about clean off and sat me down.

Both opperations were a success ... HOWEVER ... We still have a few to go. The life threatening proceedures that needed to be corrected have been. Meaning:

Esophogeal tract was disconnected from the bronchial tract and a connection made to her stomach. The danger from asperation or stomach fluids entering her lungs have been reduced but not eliminated until the healing proceess is complete (A week in the ICU)

Her colon and intestinal tract disconnected and colostomy complete. The danger of Toximia (Fecal matter entering the bloodstream) is now eliminated.

Wow I suddenly remember the whole english language and can once perform some of life's major functions again. But not all.

She is going to be in the hospital for quite some time as there is more surgery needed. The second phase is to reconstruct a passage from the colon on out. However to do this she needs to develop more for about 6 months as her muscle walls and fibers need to become stronger in order for the proceedure to be able to begin. After 6 months the reconstruction can take place and will of course need to heal before reconnecting the intestinal tract a few short months after.........

[<T M T T>]

I am blessed for a couple reasons. I am faced with a few very tough decisions UP front and NOW in my face. Why am I blessed with theese? Theese are things that can be fixed ... and fixed NOW. Just a few short number of years ago nobody knew about theese anomolies until ... well until it was too late. Theese are not long term dabilitating things .. for this I am thankfull.

The decisions I must face now with risk , responsibility , and above all resolve are ones that can be dealt with and dealt with early in her life and our lives together as a family. Childeren with theese anomolies go on to lead perfect natural lives ... this is just one of life's Toll Booths. It is not anything I did Nor Amy before during aor even after the pregnancy as it is not genettic. It is just a set of anomolies that occur and human geene splicing goes on in infinite numbers. Sometimes they code differently. Why .. science does not know all the do know is that it happens at randum but faithfull patterns in about 5000 registered births.

For some reading and help I have researched this rare complexity called VACTERL (http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/heart-encyclopedia/disease/syndrome/vacterl.htm) which is an acronym for theese set of anomolies. As I become more aware and learn more about it I can most certainly fill you in.

Look I cannot express the thanks I want to give to all of you for being here and part of what I consider to be the best website and group of friends out there. Amy and I do thany everyone for your support and I must draw this write up to a close and I need to go back into the ICU to check up on my baby Girl!
Will keep ya posted!

TMTT- Dad again

[<T M T T>]

Just got back!

Things are progressing well. We got to see her tonite in her "Popemobille" style ICu crib. Tough as ever lovin' nails looking at your newborn thru the mass array of breathing apperatus , IV's , Drainage tubes , Monitors and tape along with a host of gauze in a clear hard plastic sealed shell. Quickly I was able to see thru all of that as if it wasn't there. Of course I was in a "Zone" when I was standing there allmost as if a surreal moment had happened and there were no boundaries between me and my baby girl only a few short inches ways behind man made things.

It was a moment that to me is and has been sealed in time. I felt her pain and wanted to somehow burden all of it .. only I quickly realized I couldn't. The Attending physitian ccame over and aparently had started to talk to us and Amy quickly keyed me in snapping me out of my trance.


She is doing much better a mere 24 hours Post-op. She is sedated and has been dropped another three percent assist on breathing. . She is now doing 97% on her own. The way it stands De-Intebation (Or removal of deep breathing assistence equipment) may happen as early as tomorrow (48Hours after installation) which is nothing short of amazing. Again risk is involved.

Because of the tube going thru the repair site it needs to come out due to irritation hampering healing effectiveness. However it also needs to remain due to soft esophegual material being a newborn. Being the connection was not made naturally no hard cartelage has had a chance to form and grow. Cartelage is what keeps the passage open and sturdy. You quickly can see the delema on if you do and or do not. Generally this part of the steps to recovery are very normal and routine and in Her case she has an upper hand being that during the long surgery it was found she had more than enough esophogual material to mae a connection without any stretching or stress of the material.

Tomorrow will be a trying day of many as I am a firm believer in "Paitence". being I have learned to not rush anything, time to me is the best medicine. This is somewhat against my own medical knowledge of letting things heal slowly for the best result. if this goes well then we are faced with a 4 week stay consisting of training the still connected portion of the intestinal tract. Also after this moment "Semi normal oral feeding can start to begin. Problem here is that babies born need their first "Feeding" Stimuli to train the brain on how to take in and absorb energy from food. This training has not happened yet and it can be a hard thing to teach without nature doing the work at birth. So On down the road to recovery we go with a few stops along the way. Of course I will post our findings.

Thank you all!

TMTT
(Tool Man Tim Taylor)

[PToombs]

Tim, glad to hear every thing is going ok. My wife and I will keep your family in our thoughts and prayers.
Pete & Jackey

[mal91152]

Tim, you and the family are in our prayers. Stay strong

Matt

[BlkRam1]

ToolMan, keep the faith, your daughter is in good hands, and she has awesome parents.

[12PACK]

Good to hear things are progressing well and you're handling everything that's come your way.

We were down a similar, but not as extensive, road three years ago when the little guy in my avatar was born. His condition was found when the Mrs. was @ 26 weeks. She had to goto Boston for the next few months for treatments, then when he was born, he spent two weeks at the NICU. We "revisited" that road last July 4th when he had a few seizures and spent four days in the PICU @ UMASS in Worcester. He was in a Popemobile then, too.


Keep your head up and keep the faith! I'll be thinking of your family, too.

[<T M T T>]

Hey gang,

Couple of late nights sure can take a toll. Well Tuesday night was a great night. Allbeit she was morphened out a bit to calm her down. We went in and sat bedside for a bit then of course as timing has it the staff rotational rounds were beginning. No big deal really but it just means more poking , prodding and stats. So I stuck by for a bit and as they were adjusting plumbing and such I was able to scrub up and well I reached inside the "Pod' and this angellic hand that was flailing about because of the disturbance had found my pinky and held on tight ............. Ahhhhhhhhhhh :{

Yeah that did it, Sureal and as complete a moment as one could ask for.

Wednesday was another meeting with the attending on duty seurgon. We discussed things like deintebation (Removal of breathing tube) and how they are at this point going to hold off with fears of reinsertion could be catastrophic if needed if the "leak" test does not go as planned on Monday. I was prepared for that as I in theory should have expected it to be out on tuesday if memory serves me. Again I am not one to rush.

Tonite (Thursday) One IV line is gone! many more tubes , lines , wires to go but one is better than none. .. of course none is best of all. Swaddled up in a blanket from home and wearing socks she looked better tonite than I can ever remember.

Guys I do appreciate (Amy Too ) all the kind words.

I am beat will have more for ya as soon as I can muster the energy.

[JLeonard]

Tim,
Glad to hear Ashlynn is doing better. :woohoo: One thing sure, she will be one tough cookie when all this is behind her.
My thoughts are with you and your family.

[XLTRod]

prayer sent to you and the family. Rod
________
JUSTIN BIEBER FAN (http://justinbieberfan.info/)

[<T M T T>]

Thanks Rod! Hey Jay how's things?

In fact I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your support. It truly helps. monday I have yet another consent form to fill out regarding the next surgical proceedure. She is going in for the esophogueal leak test. Basicly the repair site is tested to make sure the surgury was a success.

[PRattenbury]

I'll have my fingers crossed. Sounds like things are progressing well this far.

[XLTRod]

Tim , hang in there, I have 2 kids, tho they are in their 20s I remember and have seen scary stuff. I'v been very lucky mine have had no serious issues. But friends and being on the fire dept exposed me to a lot of drama. You will get through it and we will keep you in our prayers. Rod
________
LovelyWendie99 (http://www.lovelywendie99.com/)

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Thanx Rod!



O.K Great news!!

She was de intebated Monday afternoon!. It was to the point that they left it in until Moday's MRI to do the "Leak test" on the esophogueal tract. Reason being is that she needed to be somewhat sedated because of the MRI proceedure. Test #1 went well. The repair site looks to be structuraly sound and in good standing order. She started to asperate into her lungs a small bit because of swelling still is present. Monday afternoon she had the breathing tube removed AND bladder cathedor!

Amazingly her mood has changed from angry and upset baby irritated with tubes and morphene , ataban , and constant poking and prodding , suction and any other baby cranking .. .. to a calm and much much more comfortable 1 week old baby. (As comfy as you can get with yet one IV, a "Pic" line , chest tube , and a colostomy, 3 sticky heart monitor tabs , a Nasalgastrointestinal tube, and a o2 sensor on your foot)

For the last 2 nights we have been up to see her scince this started and it is like a totally different experience. We can hold her , Bathe her , change her up, and really truly start to enjoy her. Granted it still is in the ICU, Granted many things still connected, Granted yet again that the upmost in care is needed with handling her and being in a sterrile environment ...... but somehow it all dissapears in mere seconds upon arival. It is amazing how you can adapt and overcome obsticles when challenged.

Last nite she was taken out of her "Popemobille" style incubus and is in a small but standard Crib. Tonite it was decorated (And by the way UV sterrilization lights and HP Photo ink do not get along) with Faded freshly printed pics of her sister , mom ,dad , cats and other baby buddies all rooting for her. I am thinking of printing this out and bringing it up just to have by her bedside just to show her support that she has nationwide thanks to you.


Whewwwwww yeah emotional rollercoaster .... you can say that.

So what now? in 4 more days another comprehensive leakdown test is going to be performed. Why? Well in 2 days they are going to start the oral feeding process from a bottle. THAT is going to be tough. The primal instinct is of course to suckle after birth. She has not excersized that primal need and may have what they call an adversion ... or no idea or even care to do so.

If it works with no issues muscle groups are going to start working that never had to before, and never could have unless the seurgons had not made the connection. Now being the muscles used to drink are at the repair site she needs close monitoring. If things go as planned then in 4 days another test VIA MrI is done to check for any trauma and leaks. If that works then they need to ween from test formula which is watery to a more stable "Normal" formula ... But very slowly because of the intestinal tract has no idea what to do with food.

A number of weeks are stil going to be spent in the NICU. After that 6 months later comes the BIG operation of reconstructing her lower intestinal tract on out. I am far too focused on the "NOW". NOW As for me I am going upstairs to crash.

[JLeonard]

Well Tim it sounds like Ashlynn is getting great care and the docs have a handle on what needs to be done to pull her thru this.
Hang in there, she'll be bouncin' around in your Dodge before ya know it.
How's Mrs Toolman holding up?

[XLTRod]

Sounds good , glad to hear it. Still pulling for ya. Rod
________
Vaporizer Wiki (http://vaporizerwiki.com)

[<T M T T>]

Hey guys,

Been a tough week. Been workin quite a bit of O.T (A because We areout of control busy , and B Need the $$$'s because of added expenses) And tonite I finally had about 45 minutes with her before the pager went off and off I went.

Oh kaye She is doing much much better. Slowly bit by bit they have been ramping feed ammounts higher by bottle and by tube less. She kinda has the bottle thing knocked (Still gets ahead of herself and gags but figures it out the next set of draws) There is an issue withthe colostomy setup that is going to change things a bit in terms of changing her but this is minor and just mens more supplies at home when that comes. Tomorrow the main line IV may be coming out! (Down to an O2 sensor , heart monitoring , and the Nasal Gastio intestinal tube) Ohboyohboyohboyohboy Oo. She has been alert , checkin stuff out and her most favorite activity is yanking the nasal tube clean out :mad:

There was a small setback earlier in the week. .... I found out tonite. The desity scan had shown that she has a disc fusion between L5 and the bottom side of the intervertebral disc between L5 and L4. Come to find out it is very common does not interfere with any walkin , sitting nor stiffness and is easily watchable. Many defuse once babies become more active.

Tomorrow I am going in for infintile CPR and a prognosis report and plan. Once the Debreif happens I can come home (If not dead tired) and give a Full on update.

[<T M T T>]

SHE IS HOME!

Yep home home home! The seurgonal staff and in coordination with the nursing staff behind closed doors in the conference room had determined that her prognosis is very good! Granted we are going to have a VNA for a bit mainly due to the colostomy but she is home with us for the next 6 months. Man this is good news. I was out of communications from thursday nite 6:00 and had worked right thru to 6:00 friday evening. With limited communications it was tough to find out news on what whas brewing. Amy filled me in late last nite as I was sleeping @ 6:00:15 :-laf

Aww screw this guys I wanna chat so bad but I gotta go hang out with my lil' buddy! Be back on later!! Oo.

[TORQUE THIS]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :woohoo:

I'll give ya a call tomorrow!!! :beerchug:

[Jim]

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Man right now it sucks we can only have 4 smileys per post or else the whole screen would be full!!!

Best of luck Guys!

[XLTRod]

Thats pissa I'm thrilled for ya. Congrats and keep the prayers going. :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
________
Children Nexium (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/nexium/)

[12PACK]

Great news! The Mrs. is a nurse and I had her read your first post. Just this morning I mentioned to her that I was wondering how things were going for you. Thanks for the update and congrats on getting your future diesel owner (can you imagine how many oil burners will be available when she starts driving....but then again how many particle filters they'll have :nono: ) home.

[JLeonard]

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Good deal!!!

[John DiMartino]

Im so glad she is finalyl home! :woohoo: :woohoo:

[PToombs]

Glad to hear it Tim! :woohoo: :woohoo: