First Week

There have been lots of family and friends we have been communicating with to provide updates on Grayson's health.  We will try to get things moving on this site so everyone can get updates.  Grayson is now a week old and the week seemed like one giant long day.  We will provide a summary of the past week and then keep up with this blog on a regular basis.

November 21

Grayson James Duquette was born at 12:16 A.M. at 5lb 7oz and 17.5 inches long at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. After a quick labor and delivery, we were super excited to welcome our son into this world.  

Our son soon went to NICU ( neonatal intensive care unit) as he was having difficulty maintaining his oxygen levels and his breathing was irregular.  It was a couple hours later that we found out our little boy had Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).  This hit us like a ton of bricks in the face as we had no inclination of this.  About 50% of babies with Trisomy 21 have heart conditions that usually require surgery.  Knowing this, an echocardiogram was perfomed and thankfully Grayson's heart looked fine.

November 22

Grayson was still on oxygen and then a vacuum tube was put down his throat into his stomach because his stomach was distended.  They tried to turn off the vacuum but his belly just ballooned up even more, which caused medical staff to believe something else was wrong.

November 23

Grayson was transported to Brenner Children's Hospital due to his complications to be further evaluated.

November 24-25

Grayson was kept stable until Monday (11/26) when a biopsy was taken to test for an intestinal disease.

This weekend Grayson's oxygen levels increased and he was able to start breathing ambient air without the aid of supplemental oxygen.  His breathing became more stable as well. 

Grayson has not eaten anything since he was born, so they started him on some nutritional supplements intravenously.

November 26

The intestine biopsy was taken.

November 27

Unfortunately, Grayson's biopsy came back positive for Hirschsprungs Disease.  We can't seem to catch a break as only 1 in 5,000 babies are born with this disease.

About 1 hour after the biopsy results came back, Grayson was brought in for surgery on his large intestine.  The surgery took about 3.5 hours and went well.  He will have a colostomy bag on him for the next 2 months and then will have a second surgery to cut out portions of the intestine and reconnect it.

November 28

He was resting comfortably all day as he is on pain medication and currently has a ventilator assisting his breathing.