Brigham's Update

Adam sent this email out to a number of people, but I thought it was a pretty good update of where we are now. We are just so proud of our little guy! It has been quite a roller coaster, but we are just amazed with how strong he continues to be. We have so much hope and faith in him and the doctors and that he will heal in a couple months time. 

Hi all from the Italian district of Pittsburgh!

Candace and I felt we should write up a synopsis of how The Brigster is doing and that way we can reconnect with a lot of people that we have been indirectly communicating with. First, we just want to thank EVERYONE for all of their support. We have been holed up in the hospital for over two weeks now and every time we have surfaced to the public we have only felt love and support, which really helps us through the toughest times. 

Brigham's heart surgery, and biggest challenge to date, went perfectly, as we know you are aware. That is no longer a concern for Brigham; he will just need a few visits through his first year of life and then an annual doctor exam each year of his life. We have heard both he will and will not be able to play contact sports, depending on the doctor. But, those decisions will come with follow-up exams. 

We are currently back in the CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit) due to a complication from the surgery and recovery. After being up in recovery for a couple days the Brig-man-on-campus came down with a heavy infection from the surgery and drainage/medicine tubes that had been inserted and removed from his chest and abdomen. The infection went septic, but not severely to the point of organ failure or anything like that. But, the infection was bad enough that his body was spending all his energy in fighting it with the antibiotics they started. So he needed to be put on a tube to help his breathing. He was also put onto a pacemaker (not as serious as it sounds, they already had the lines in from the surgery and the thing sits in his bed running off batteries), but he was just taken off it this morning. The pacemaker was because of a condition many newborns have where they have an extra circuit in their heart that starts looping, causing their hearts to race at really high rates. They have been giving him medicine to regulate his heart rate and we will most likely need to give him medicine 4x a day for his first year. They expect him to naturally grow out of that problem within the first year like most children. 

So the current hurdle Brigger-the-Better is facing is the infection. They are currently taking an x-ray to see if his lungs are working strong enough to allow him to get off his breathing tube by the end of the day. They are optimistic he will most likely come off the tube today. After that we are waiting for his infection cultures to show up negative so we know the infection is not growing but dying off. We expect that result any time, as well. He does have little complications they are watching, but we will just wait as we monitor it all. And he just got his breathing tube out with the x-ray! Yay! Now he's rediscovering his tongue! So, one thing we have learned recently is that the antibiotics for the infection is a six week process. And because of the IV he needs for the medications he cannot come home for that time. Instead, he will go back up to recovery hopefully by the end of the week, and then once he gets feeding and breathing down pat and he is ready to be discharged like normal, he will move down the block to a children's home. It's basically a hotel for families with kids who need medical care to a degree less than a hospital and more than parents can be trained to do. We are just learning about it, but I guess we can stay with him whenever we want or have nurses take care of him as needed. So that is where we are at now. He is INCREDIBLY cute. Probably the cutest baby I have ever seen. We have started charging nurses admission fees to come in and see him. 

Thank you again for everything! Obviously it has been very hard and scary at times, often for long periods of time. But, we keep reminding ourselves that he has gotten through the worst already and he won't remember any of it. That knowledge with our hope and faith has kept us going well. The support has been overwhelming and perplexing to us at times, but we are always grateful for it. On Sunday the Elder's Quorum President came down and helped me give Brigs another blessing and our wonderful Bishop came later and allowed us to take the Sacrament, too. We also heard that Brigham was prayed for in nearly every prayer at church, which is really humbling to us. Oh! I forgot to mention the infection is Staff and they have to take precautions to make sure it doesn't spread to other patients nor worsen his conditions. So if you are planning surprise trips out here just know you may not even get to see him. But we are going to try and sell photos in the gift shop downstairs for only $5, which is a great alternative.

Much love,

Candace & Brigham & Adam Dyal

PS Dr. Morell just visited us and winked at Candace multiple times so it's been a very good day!