Welcome to our site about our son Brodie Dick who will join our family on August 8, 2011 at 8:00. At 22 weeks we went in to find out if we were having a boy or a girl and we found out that we were having a boy but that he may have a birth defect. After an agonizing week we found out that our son had CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia). CDH occurs when the diaphragm fails to fully form, allowing the abdominal organs into the chest cavity and preventing lung growth. CDH occurs in 1 of every 2500 births and a baby with CDH is born every 10 minutes. 50% of babies diagnosed with CDH do not survive. The cause is not known. This will be a journal of our journey and will allow our family and friends to keep up to date on what is happening with us and our son Brodie. Thanks for your prayers and support!


Friday, February 17, 2012

Surgery was Successful

Brodie's surgery was a success. He had a complete overhaul and is doing amazing considering what he went through. As I write this he is laying in one arm as I type with the other. He is grabbing for my phone and just smiling away. He got the g-tube and a fundo. A fundo is a procedure where they wrap part of your stomach around your esophagus so that when his stomach fills up it clinches the esophagus not allowing for reflux. Hopefully this will keep him from vomiting and significantly change our lives. He was also circumcised and had his appendix out. There was nothing wrong with the appendix but the surgeon said he just removed it while he was in there so that he would not have issues with it later in life. One of the benefits of the surgery is that he no longer has tape and a tube on his face so we can see all of his handsome face. This time around the hospital seems to not be as easy to handle. Before we were working to bring him home and now that we have had him home we just want him to stay. It is harder now that I am back at work but hopefully he can go home soon. They are saying maybe tomorrow or Sunday. This should be his last procedure for a while until he gets the trach out. He has an appt. with the neurologist so we are both excited and anxious. Please pray that it goes great and that we get good news. As for LaVona and I we are exhausted and ready for things to settle down. The bad thing is that insurance is cutting our nursing hours so that will take some getting used to. We are just so thankful and blessed to have him and all of the exhaustion and stress is well worth it. We could not imagine not having him in our lives and there is not a day that goes by that I don't look at him and say wow to myself. Thanks to all of you that continue to support Brodie and care for him. We will keep you updated on his discharge and neuro appt.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that the surgery went well!! We are so happy things are continuing to progress!! We will continue to pray and believe for a COMPLETE recovery! Love you guys!
Anthony & Tammie

Sonny and Bernadette said...

Praise God for a successful surgery! We continue to pray for Brodie's complete recovery. I hope he gets to go home soon. Thank you so much for keeping us updated with his progress. Love and hugs to all---Berna

Suzan said...

great news to hear...got my bracelets & will be wearing them in honor of Brodie & Brooklyn next Saturday in the Houston Rodeo 10K...what an inspiration these 2 little CDH survivors are...hope yall have a great week

Lindsey said...

What great news! I hope you are all doing well. Brodie sounds to be staying on the right path. God will give you the strength to keep going. Stay strong and glad to hear of the update. Take care!