September 20 - Dear Nicholas Sparks (Guest Blogger Sara Ysasi)

Hello Nicholas Sparks,

This is my daughters story with CDH. I remember going for a routine sonogram at 24 weeks. I remember laying there and feeling her go over the same spot on my belly over and over. She then said I need to go get my boss; I see something that isn't right. The other lady came in and took a look herself. She then began to tell me what she saw and how it wasn't right. They told me they would have to send me to see a specialist in Dallas. A week later I went to see a doctor who specializes in sick babies. She told me that my daughter Aubrey only had about a 30-40% chance of making it. They told me that she had her liver, spleen, stomach, small and large intestines all up in her chest cavity. So every month I would go down to Dallas and they would tell me each time things didn't look good but as long as she stayed in me she was safe. At my last appointment they told me I would be induced in a week. I had my daughter on February 25th. She was intubated right away. They doctors where very impressed with her because she only required a high-frequency oscillator.  At four days old they tired to change her to a regular ventilator and she did wonderful. At six days old they did surgery to repair the whole, the hole was so big the had to use a gor-tex patch to close the hole up. A week later they took her off the ventilator and put her on oxygen. At first she did good the they had to got up on the amount of pressure they were giving her. A couple of days later she was down to almost room air. So we worked of feeds and she did great! She then came off oxygen too. A month later on March 25th we got to take are baby home with no medical equipment. She is now seven months old happy and healthy as could be! I'm writing and sharing my store so that maybe one day we can find out with cdh happens to these sweet babies, and better way to safe them!

Sincerely,
Sara Ysasi