Gastroschisis

Derringer was born on Nov. 24, 2007. I found out that he had gastroschisis when I was about 5 months pregnant. When I found this out I was terrified.

I didn’t know what to do and I thought the worst was going to happen. After a couple of visits to the doctor they said that everything would be fine and that they would have to do one surgery when he was born because there was only a small amount of his bowels that were out.

After I got that news and did a some research on the condition I felt a little better. My pregnancy went great I had no pain or sickness. After the 8th month my son decided to come early. I went in the hospital thinking I was going to get a c section because that is what was discussed with the doctor and that is what she thought was best for me. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned when I got to the hospital I was there for four days before I was fully dilated. When that moment came the doctors told me that I would be delivering naturally. I was so scared but in the end everything went well.

When my son was born I seen him for a second and then they took him off to do his surgery. Later that night the doctor told me that more bowels were out than they expected and a lot of it was dead. They ended up having to remove most of his bowels and they kept him in the hospital for a couple of weeks. They then decided they wanted to do a STEP procedure on him to lengthen what bowels he had left.

The surgery was successful and after awhile they began trying to feed him. When they did that it didn’t go so well. He began vomiting all the time. After a few more tests they told me that a part of his bowel was getting kinked up causing him to vomit a lot. It’s been 5 months now and my son is still in the hospital.

They now decided to wait on this last surgery because they believe he is going to need a transplant now. There next plan is to send him home on his TPN and wait until he is two so that he can then be evaluated for the surgery. I really don’t know what to do because at the beginning I was reassured that he would be fine and know I’m being told he is going to need a transplant. Is there anyone else who is going through this.

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It`s been close on a year now since i set up this Gastroschisis iniative and it is time to take a closer look at the success and/or failures of the website.

When i initially set it all up my thoughts were along the lines of having a useful Gastroschisis resource for parents to be and existing parents of babies born with this condition.
Over the year i have developed it into an expanded resource encompassing research and development, a gastroschisis toolbar, videos, your blogs and at the very core of the site is your birth stories and experiences.

Having read so many at times heart wrenching accounts of the Gastroschisis condition it has given me a renewed enthusiasm to carry on developing the website further.

As i am writing this i have just approved the latest article added by Mel and her now 1 year old Daughter, Mel becomes our 148th member since i set the website up in May 2007 and reaching even the 100th member milestone seems like a double edged sword.

I am pleased that the website has reached out to so many but on the opposite to that i am saddened to think that there are so many cases of the condition.

Now for more good news.

The website in my eyes had become a bit dated in design and the functionality of the system i was using did not offer all of the features i wanted to offer to our shared community, so it is with great pleasure that i can now announce that the website has undergone a fresh lick of paint, i think you are going to like the new website i know i do, but of course i would say that wouldn`t i?

For all of the existing members i have sent you an email, you will need to re-register it is just as quick and simple as before.

The transition from the old design to the new one is now complete

Dean

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Hi my name is julie,

I have a son who at 5 month of pregnancy was diagnosed with gastroschisis, he is now 2 and a half yrs old.

It was so scary at first when we found out the news, we were in the hospital for over two months and we were so lucky because at our first surgery we were done, all the drs said it was God taking care of us because they had never seen a baby with this condition do so well.

Eric will be 3yrs in August 3 of 08, and he eat, play runs like a normal kid. If you want to chat about our experience email me.

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