Travis and Rachel Porter: January 2012

For those of you who follow my blog and have not heard about Nathan I will give you a quick update. (I'm sure that there are not many followers, because I rarely post). When Nathan was five weeks old he had some health issues. He was not eating very well and I was worried that he was dehydrated. I took him in to his pediatricians office and on the drive over he went into shock. We are so lucky that our doctor is located at Riverton Hospital. When we arrived LifeFlight was called and they where there within ten minutes. He was unresponsive and had to be intubated. Multiple people worked on him trying to start an IV, but no one was successful. They had to place three IO's to get fluid into him. An IO is like a needle that is pushed directly into your bone, so the fluids go right to the bone marrow. At this point he was flown to Primary Children's Medical Center.
I was not sure what to expect when we arrived at the hospital. When we got there we met with A physician, resident, medical student and cardiologist. The cardiologist mentioned that Nathan's heart was not functioning properly. He was in heart failure and cardiogenic shock. They were not sure if this was caused from a virus or an issue with his heart. That night Nathan coded twice requiring CPR and defibrillation to keep his heart functioning. The first time was around 8PM. They were trying to place a central line in his neck. I was standing just outside his door and saw everything happen. Nathan responded quickly to the medication. The doctor mentioned that he thought this code happened because Nathan's heart was accidently touched while the central line was being placed.
Nathan recevied a blessing around 10PM and he was told that he would live and become strong. Scott, my brother, came and stayed with me at the hosptial. I was afraid to take my eyes off Nathan. Around 4AM I couldn't stay awake any longer. Scott had just gone into one of the sleeping rooms provided and I had just sat down in the recliner when Nathan coded again. This time it took much longer for him to respond. I watched them do chest compressions on this tiny seven pound baby and wondered how he was going to survive, but he did.
At this point the doctors started to think that this was more heart related, but they still checked Nathan for more than 20 viruses. That first night he had a spinal tap perfomed and also had to receive a blood transfusion. He was placed on medication to help improve his heart function.
An ECHO, ultrasound of his heart, was done again Sunday morning and his EF, heart function had improved to 75%, which is considered perfect! The cardiologist were amazed that his body had responded so quickly.
To make a long story short we remained in the hospital another week for observation. Nathan currently takes medication for his heart three times a day. His cardiologist is hopeful that he will grow out of this and wants to start reducing his medication when he is a year old.
I know that Nathan is meant to be here. He could have been taken multiple times. The little girl next to him in the ICU died. She was three years old. I think about her parents often and what they must be suffering.
I also know that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and he knows what we need to go through. I work as an exercise physiologist, with heart patients. I knew every medication Nathan was placed on. I am trained to handle code situations in adults, so I knew what was happening to Nathan. I never wanted to work in Cardiac Rehab. I had always planned on being a nurse (which didn't happen), but never thought I would work with cardiac patients. I know that Nathan received wonderful care and we are so thankful for everyone at PCMC! I feel prepared to be his mom. We have received so much love and support from our family and friends.
Nathan is doing awesome and is a growing boy! Travis has a wonderful job that he enjoys and Ionly have to work one day a week, which is a huge blessing to us! Addie is the best little helper and truely loves her little brother.
Here are a few pictures of my cute kids.

Travis will probably be embarassed that I post this. Addie is such the little mommy. She wants to do everything I do, including pump.

Here is Mr. Chunky wearing nine month clothes at five months.

Addie finally had her first haircut. It took forever to grow and then turned into a mullet. She loved getting her hair cut and now actually wants me to style it each day. I used to chase her aroudn the house trying to do something with her hair.