We have been BUSY since February. We have helped 15 families thus far this year. Our funds were raised from blacklight gauntlets at every location, burpee challenges, the golf outing, DBBB merchandise sales, the and the Irish Fest 5k!! I would sincerely like to thank each and every one of you who participated in these events or donated to our cause. You each hold a very special place in my heart. DBBB wouldn't exist without all of you. I am beyond excited to see how we finish the rest of the year.
I am going to post backgrounds about the families we have helped in rounds since we have helped so many. Some families have chosen to keep their story private. Please continue to pray for all of these families!
Gabriel and Natalie Burns
On November 6, 2013, I gave birth to my first child Gabriel Lucas Burns. He was born at 7 pounds 14.3 oz and healthy. We took him home 2 days after birth and started our life as a family of 3! At about 3 weeks old, Gabriel started having difficulties eating. He would nurse for 1-5 minutes and then just scream and back arch for 15 minutes. The doctor put it off as a normal thing for a month. After a month of terrible feeding and weight gain, I finally asked about reflux and the doctor finally put him on Zantac. After a few weeks and nothing helping his feeding discomforts, I stopped giving the medication as it did nothing. I cut dairy out of my diet in the end of February and started noticing a difference! Whew! That was easy! But he started sleeping like a newborn at 3.5 months and he was not gaining any weight still.
On February 27,2014, Gabriel began puking the contents of his stomach. Anytime anything would hit his stomach, he would empty it. I took him to urgent care and they told me there was nothing wrong with him and sent us home. Later that evening, around 6 pm, I noticed a tiny red dot in his diaper, but it was enough to send this momma into crisis mode! Was my baby beginning to pee blood?!?! I took him to the emergency room after talking with ask a nurse. We got there at about 10 pm that night. They ran all sorts of tests due to the fact that he was still vomiting and very pale. The tiny red dot was just chaffing caused by the diaper (we were using cloth diapers at the time). The doctor finally came back in around 3 am and went over the results of everything with me all at once. Everything came back completely normal. Then he got to the x-Ray--Gabriel's heart was very enlarged. He sent us home that night and told us we needed to follow up with his pediatrician sometime in the next week.
At 8:00 am on February 28, I called the pediatrician's office and talked to the nurse. I argued with her for 20 minutes to get my son in. Finally she said "fine bring him in at 11:20." We got there and the doctor reviewed the X-ray image. I was sent home with Gabriel and he told me that there was nothing wrong with him but that he would admit him for dehydration and get another X-ray taken and some other tests just so he knew he was right. That day was a very busy day. They put an IV in his arm, put him on oxygen, did another X-ray, an EKG, and an echocardiogram. After all of that, the pediatric cardiologist in Waterloo -Dr. Chandra came in on his day off to repeat the echo. As soon as he walked in the room I knew there was something wrong. When he was done, he turned to me and my husband and looked at us with a concerned blank stare and said "let's go across the hall and chat." My heart dropped. Dr.Chandra then explained to us that our son was born with a Congenital Heart Defect called ALCAPA otherwise known as the Anomalous Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery. He explained to us that Gabriel would either be taken by ambulance or life flighted to Iowa City and would require open heart surgery within the week and told us some other things to expect. They decided ambulance was the safest route as there was a major snow storm coming in. The ambulance crew arrived around 6:30 that night. They got him all packed up in the isolette and we followed behind the ambulance. It took 3 hours to get there due to the major blizzard. They stabilized Gabriel that night and we all rested.
The next day was filled with tons of information. We met with doctors and the surgeon to get more Information on what to expect. Surgery was scheduled for Monday, March 3, 2014. That was a hard day as it was my birthday. Surgery was expected to take 4-6 hours. Those 4-6 hours came and went quickly. They couldn't control the bleeding and he couldn't successfully come off bypass. They put him on a heart and lung machine called ECMO. He spent 4 days on ECMO and his heart was able to start healing. After he came off ECMO, his chest remained open for 2 more days. After they closed his chest they began working to get him off the vent. Once he was off the vent they pulled all but 1 of his lines and they moved him to the step down unit! We spent 2 weeks on 2JCP and worked on feedings. We ended up coming home with an NG tube for 4 months. When we were done with the tube, Gabriel started gaining the first weight he had gained in 5 months. He just took off.
He still has moderate mitral valve regurgitation and right pulmonary artery stenosis. Today he is a 2.5 year old little boy that has more energy than me and my husband combined. He has asthma now but it is pretty well controlled! He will have another surgery to replace/fix his mitral valve in 2 years unless it continues to get worse.
There is more to our story though! On September 9, 2015, we found out we were expecting our second child. On December 20, 2015 we had our 20 week level 2 anatomy scan with an Iowa city doctor. They could not rule out a heart defect as baby would not show its heart. We found out we were expecting our little Natalie Renee Ann Burns. We had a fetal echo with Dr. Chandra and he said he was 70% sure our daughter was going to be fine but not totally sure because she once again wouldn't show her heart very well! On January 18, 2016, Gabriel was admitted to the peds unit at covenant for 5 different respiratory infections and an ear infection. He spent 3 days in the hospital. He was released on the 21st. We had our follow up ultrasound with the Iowa city docor. Natalie finally cooperated and showed her heart! She was then officially diagnosed at 24 weeks gestation with Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA).
Terri Shakespeare
I felt a lump in my right breast in July, 2013. I just didn't feel right. On August 13th, I had a lumpectomy. I found out on Aug 15th that I had invasive ductile carcinoma, Breast cancer. I went through 4 chemo treatments plus 36 radiation treatments. In November 2014, I felt a lump in my armpit found out in December that the cancer had returned. On January 2015, I had a double mastectomy. I had many drains and infections after this due to my blood counts being so low from the chemo (we call red devil). This was very harsh and put me in the hospital after each treatment. I had another 36 treatments of radiation. In November 2015, I had a flap surgery done for reconstruction. I thought for sure my journey with cancer was over. Nope, not at all. Since then I've been diagnosed 2 more times. The last time was in August 2016. It was non removable. Stage 4. I'll be doing a estrogen blocker shot monthly and ibrance pill for the rest of my life.Natasha Bryan
Natasha is a smart little girl who loves to read and draw. Last November we found out that she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Wilm's Tumor, the tumor was big and it has also spread to her lungs. That was when she had her first surgery to put in her port and to biopsy. After that many weeks of chemotherapy and hospital stays because she was losing weight, about 15 lbs total. In March, we got the good news that the tumor was small enough to remove but also her kidney, adrenal gland, and 5 inches of lymph nodes went with. After healing up, she did 2 weeks of radiation therapy, she was super excited to ring the bell. 
More chemotherapy was up next, which wrapped up in the beginning of August. Hoping for the all clear we were disappointed to hear that there is now a spot on the liver. We find out what we happens next for us on September 12th. Overall, she has been one of the strongest people I know, all days are not good days but she makes the best of them.
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