Brandon's Run

Brandon has had many bumps in the road since October.  He started getting really bad colds in November which required nebulizer treatments.  In January, the colds took a turn for the worse.  He ended up hospitalized with the Croup which then turned into RSV.  From January through July, it seems Brandon was hospitalized every other week with the same syptoms/problems.   Finally, in July Dr. Amin, an ORL specialist took Brandon into surgery to do a bronscopy to see if he might have scar tissue in his airway from all the intabations (breating tubes) he had during the first 4 months of his life.   To the OR's shock, it turns out Brandon had a water based cyst in his airway blocking 75% of his airway passage.  They also removed his adnoids which were blocking 80% of his nasal passages and put tubes in his ears to drain an abundance of fluid.  This was done on 7/2/08.   Since then Brandon had been home and has been like a new child now that he can actually breathe again.  While it is a relief they finally found/fixed the problem, it will still be a concern as we move forward.  There is a potential the cyst can come back so in mid-September he will have to go for another bronch.  Let us pray that it has not come back!

Having a baby is an absolute miracle and a blessing.  Imagine being told though that when your baby is born that there is something wrong.   Those are truly the worst words that a parent has to hear and any parent who has had to go through this knows so well when I say "I wish I could trade places with my child and take the pain away".    Brian and I never at any point though said "why us, why Brandon".  We truly believe that in life things happen for a reason.  As bad as those things are there are always beautiful things to find in such situations.  Our most beautiful moments were having Brandon and being able to hold him and see him even if it meant that he may be taken from us.  Even those moments that are small are the greatest belssings of all.

We met so many families at Children's Hospital Boston who were going through the same things as us, only dealing with a variety of different types of birth defects.   Even faced with their own challenges, Brian and I learned so much from them and it helped us to gain strength to endure each test that was brought our way.

Brandon and Mom taking a break.  He is almost taller than me!