by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
It’s been a few weeks since Thompson Eslinger came home to Garretson. For his parents, Heather Tyrrell and Josh Eslinger, it’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Now that he’s settling in at home, we thought we’d check in. The story starts back in December.
“I went in early for my 20-week appointment,” she said. “I was already dilatated to 8 centimeters. My cervix was torn and so I had to have emergency surgery to sew my cervix shut and try to stop the early delivery. We were hoping to make it to twenty-four weeks, but then my water broke and we had to deliver.”
Thompson was born at 22 weeks gestational age.
If you go to most hospitals around the country, or ask most doctors and obstetricians, they’ll tell you that 24 weeks is the bare minimum for viability. That means that younger than 24 weeks is likely a death sentence. The Sanford Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Sioux Falls, however, does have some of the most state-of-the-art equipment and some of the best staff in the United States. Even so the outlook was grim. Thompson was 1 pound, .06 oz and was 10 inches long.
“First they told us that we’d be lucky to have just 5 days with him," Heather said. “Those five days came and went. Then they told us to take it day by day. Then they started to say week by week. Then it was month by month. It was scary. We lived with fear and anxiety constantly. It’s when the nurses and then the doctors started using when, rather than if, when we talked about procedures and plans for his treatment that we knew that it had turned around. I could tell that these professionals really started rooting for him. They cared, they wanted him to keep going. They could tell he wanted to live. He fought to live and get stronger every step of the way.”
“He was born with a perforated bowel, so right away he had to have surgery to fix that,” said Josh. “They were really worried about that surgery, but he came through it great and started kicking butt and doing great.”
“In the NICU, they talk about things being two steps forward and one step back,” said Heather. “For Thompson, he'd make four or five steps forward at once, then he’d have a big step back.”
“That perforated bowel was a big step back,” said Josh. “It was hard on him, but he sprang back. Man, I’m just looking back on our journal entries on Facebook and Caringbridge here… looking at all the stuff he’s been through.”
“He took a long time to gain the weight he needed,” said Heather.
“I joked with the nurses that we needed to add some muscle milk to the formula to help him make those gains,” Josh said. “You cope with humor. What they did to supplement his growth was a picc line, and the picc line went straight through his heart and he went septic after that with a bacterial infection. On April 1st his eye surgery to correct his premature retinopathy. On April 10th he got strong enough to get off the C-pap machine to regular oxygen flow instead. On April 14th he hit the 4-pound mark! But on April 25th he got a blood infection, got really sick and had to get back on the C-pap machine and get multiple blood transfusions. On May 4th, he recovered from the staph infection and his spinal tap check was negative. On May 18th they had the surgery for the G-tube, a reverse ostomy, had his appendix removed and a circumcision. That was too much for him, and it hit him real hard and they had to put him back on the C-pap machine.”
“I was just getting ready to leave the hospital that day when things went so bad,” said Heather. “We’d been doing so great, but then… well I was very afraid.”
But he did come through it and Josh said that on May 23 he had his first poop! In fact, during this interview, while we were talking about that first poop, he let out a stinker.
“Yep, we gotta change that one,” said Josh. “But that’s the thing, every poop is a victory. Every poop means he’s making progress, growing and getting stronger. So yes, every poop is a win!”
“On June 2nd, they pulled his picc line, because he was doing so well, getting all his nutrients,” said Josh.
“Then they started talking about letting him come home,” said Heather. “At first they talked about mid-July, or just after July 4th. Then, just as the Jesse James Days weekend was approaching, they told us that they would be able to dismiss him and send him home in just four days.”
“It was a surprise, that’s for sure,” said Josh. “We weren’t ready for him. We didn’t even have a new car seat ready for him, or bottles or anything. But we got ready as quickly as possible.”
On Monday, June 20th, he came home at the fairly standard newborn weight of 8 pounds, 2 oz. Heather and Josh said that it’s just like having a newborn, with some extra too. He still has medical needs, they keep him on bottled oxygen and he has a feeding tube that they give him overnight so he’s constantly absorbing nutrients. They’ve turned his room and their house into a miniature NICU of their own.
“Everybody washes their hands constantly and we’ve got a near lifetime supply of antibacterial soap,” said Heather.
“We’re introducing him slowly into the world, let his immune system adjust slowly, taking a little extra care,” Josh said. “With so much of his intestine removed he’s going to need the support. His body had less intestine to process the food he needs to grow.”
“We use the feeding tube at night and bottles during the day, and go at it in shifts,” said Heather. “That first night home was kinda rough, only about 2 ½ hours of sleep for us. He’s used to noise and light all the time because of the hospital, so we had to make some adjustments with lights, and noise and music making toys.”
“Got some stats I’ll hit you with real quick,” said Josh. “Mom and I stayed a total of 93 days in the hospital with him. We put 9,882 miles on the car driving to see him. We spent a total of one thousand-ninety-tree minutes washing our hands.”
“And we’re only just getting started really,” Heather said. “With all the medications and inhalers, vitamins, doctors, and follow up appointments, we still have a long road ahead of us.”
The baby formula crisis happening nationwide has also, most certainly affected them.
“We’re specifically using a prescription formula called NeoK,” said Josh. “So far we’ve been okay, and we’ve had enough, if just. I’m told we’re in backorder territory now. The doctors, nurses and staff have told us that they are prepared to gather up samples for us from all the clinics in the area if we ever run short.”
“Just another thing to add to the anxiety of it all,” said Heather. “But despite all the bad stuff, we’re happy. He wanted to live. He fought to live. It’s a miracle that he did live. Thompson was my grandfather’s name and why we chose it. Thompson is the strongest person that I know, he’s gotten through things that I don’t know that I could have done and survived.”
“What I do want to say now is how grateful we are to everyone,” she said. “Not just our doctors and nurses, but everyone in the community that showed us so much love and support and the donations we received. I know people were praying for us and Thompson every day. We’re humbled and we feel loved, and that helps so, so much. There are no words to say thank you quite enough.”
