Miracle Mason: Surgery is done!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Surgery is done!

Mason is doing well! At 12:oo Bonnie,came to tell us they were done operating and had just taken him off the heart, lung bypass machine . and that Dr kouretas would be out to talk to us in an hour when they were done in the operating room.

At 1:15 Dr. Kouretas came out and said all went well! He also said that he would have removed the clot, but it was gone! What a miracle. He was on the bypass machine 100 minutes and came off well. We are going to see him right now in the PICU. We had to wait an hour. Will post with anything new. Thanx for all your prayers. Sincerely, Summer

4 comments:

Kaidence's Mommy said...: Yea Mason!!! We will continue to send prayers your way. We know that recovery is the next hurdle. Way to go!!!; June 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Ashly said...: hey summer, its ashly lark. i just wanted to refer you to our friends blog who also has a baby with the same heart problem. thought you might enjoy getting in touch with her and vice versa. im so glad you created the blog so we can keep up on how little mason is doing! thanks for all the emails too! good luck! we love you guys! www.tanandave.blogspot.com; June 9, 2008 at 3:32 PM
♥Stef said...: Wow, I am so glad to see Mason made it through his surgery! I am Gracie's Aunt and friend of Karen Larson's (our girls carpool to dance together). I get updates on Mason from time to time. I hope all goes well with his recovery! These babies sure are watched over from above. Best of luck to you and your family.
Stephanie Richards; June 9, 2008 at 4:39 PM
Rachelle Urness said...: Summer,

I am so glad to here things went well. You are an amazingly strong mother. This would be so hard. All four of my babies have been in the NICU when they are born due to being born way early. I know how it feels to not be able to hold your little one when they have a bunch of IV's and a ventalator down there throat. It breaks your heart not to be able comfort them in your arms. However, I loved your poem because that is what always gave me strength at these times is that I knew Heavenly Father was there to comfort them too! Hang in there. I just wanted you to know he is in our prayers at our house and that I am so glad that you have this website so that we can keep updated so that we can help pray for him and support you guys. What a hard thing! You are amazing! Love Rachelle

Also we will be in Utah the 21st through the 27th. We are staying in pleasent grove with my Sister's in laws. I would love to see you guys. Give me a call when you get through this in the next week and maybe we can coordinate somthing! All my Love, Rachelle; June 9, 2008 at 11:30 PM

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Mason Andrew Strickland was born on November 30, 2007! He came 3 weeks early at the American Fork Hospital, weighing in at 5 lbs 8 oz . He is the baby brother to 3 brothers and 1 sister. At 3 days old he became very sick at home. After a trip by LifeFlight to Primary Children's Hospital that afternoon he was diagnosed with a variation of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Mason will need at least 3 open heart surgeries before he is 3 years old. He had his first surgery when he was 10 days old and spent 7 weeks in the hospital. He had his 2nd surgery at 6 months old and only spent 1 1/2 weeks in the hospital. Mason also has issues with arythmias which has caused him some scary moments, a 2nd trip by Life Flight, and more time back at Primary's PICU. We feel blessed for everyday we have him here with us. We have created this blog to follow our journey through life with our little broken hearted baby, Miracle Mason (with a few tid bits about the rest of the family too).

It's now October 3, 2009 and Mason's story needs be updated. In April 2009 Mason was diagnosed with lowered heart function (or heart failure). From April through now he has been on medications and oxygen to help improve his heart function. In August, with no improvement seen in his echos we began the process to list him for a heart transplant. He is unable to get the 3rd surgery (or Fontan) as planned because of his heart failure. On Sept, 3, 2009 he had his pre-transplant Heart Cath (the last thing needed to list him for a new heart). The results that day have left us heart broken. He was diagnosed with severe pulmonary vein stenosis and is unable to receive a heart transplant. He will now need a heart-lung transplant, if he is a viable candidate. Since Primary's does not have a heart-lung program we are seeking opinions from other hospitals (outside of Utah) at this time. Even though we are extremely saddened with his most recent diagnosis, we continue to find joy in our journey with our special child of God, our sweet Mason.

(In November 2009 we learned of another possible option for Mason. CHOP and Stanford have both talked to us about doing just a heart transplant to his own one healthy lung. At this time we are exploring that option and the possibility of it being another true miracle for "Miracle Mason".)

February 16, 2010 Mason and I (Mom) flew to Palo Alto, California to do a few last tests and get Mason listed for a new heart(heart only!! not heart-lung!!) at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. We are excited and nervous to start this new chapter of our journey.

March 3, 2010 Mason was officially listed on the Heart Transplant waiting list as a 1B status. Mason and I will wait here in Palo Alto until he receives the miraculous gift of a new heart. We miss our family at home very much!

April 4, 2010 (Easter morning) Mason received his new heart. It was the best Easter gift our family could ever be given. We are eternally grateful to his donor family who during their time of loss selflessly gave our Mason a second chance at life.

July 16, 2010 Mason and Mom flew home to Utah to reunite with their family. Mason is still very immunosuppressed in order to avoid rejection of his new heart, but definitely happy to be home playing w/ his brothers and sister!!

January 30, 2012 Mason continues to do well with his new heart. He finally came off of steroids after 18 months in October 2011! Mason is walking with the help of a walker in hopes to walk alone soon. He conitues to have a few episodes of a pneumonia each year, probably due to only having one working lung. He also has a few new issues we are facing .....sleep apnea and severe scoliosis. But, over all he continues to face life with a fight and a big smile!

April 11, 2012 Mason had back surgery because his scoliosis had worsened to a curve of 75% (normal is 0-15%). He had two rods placed in his back, better known as the VEPTR (Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Rib). It was a rough recovery, but after about 8 weeks he was feeling much better. Every 6 months he will go in for a minor surgery to extend the rods to keep up with his growth.

May 25, 2012 We finally got into a sleep doctor and she diagnosed Mason with sleep hypoxia, rather than actual apnea. Because of narrow airways his sats dip frequently through out the night, but he doesn't completely stop breathing (good news!). So he was perscribed to be on one liter of oxygen at night while asleep.

July 20, 2012 Mason finally walks all on his own!!

Not a day goes by that we don't think about Mason's donor family who has given our little miracle boy the gift of LIFE! Thank you where ever you are!