Mack Wins the Day

 6/16/22

The Morning Of

We rose early this morning to get to the hospital and see Macklin before they sent him off to surgery. We were able to pray over him, speak words of encouragement into his ears, and talk with the doctors before they sent him off.

He left the room at about 7:45 am to go down to the surgery center. This was the most difficult moment that we have ever faced in our lives -- to send our child away into a risky surgery in order to save his life. Our hearts were shredded.

The team took the next two hours to get him set up and prepped for surgery. While they were doing this, we grabbed some breakfast and went to the rooftop cafe here at UIHC and sat in the morning sun and cool breeze, flipped on worship songs, and lifted up prayers.

Surgery Results

Macklin was in surgery from about 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. This was relatively short for what we have read about for length of surgeries with VOGM. Throughout the surgery, we really only got basic updates that things were "going as planned". Waiting was tough and full of all the feelings.

We finally got the call that surgery was over and within 30 minutes the surgeons came up to debrief us on the surgery. They were really happy with the results. They used the embolization method (basically the stickiest glue you could have imagine) to plug the problematic veins in his brain.

The best way we can describe it is that they had three tries or three bullets to try and take out some of the vein issues in his head. The first bullet was a "miss". The blood flow was so fast that the glue didn't stick. This is a huge risk of the surgery because it can cause major problems. We believe because of the prayer warriors we have for Mack Attack, that this missed bullet landed in a smaller offshoot vein and stuck there instead. No harm to Macklin at all.

The next two shots hit directly where they wanted them to land. They were able to snag one huge feeder vein and another vein that had many other branches connected to it. They have really high hopes that this will do amazing wonders for Macklin's heart and the rest of his body.

PRAISE THE LORD! Thank you for everyone who had Macklin on their thoughts today, interceded for him and us and the surgeons. This was a huge relief and prayers were answered today.

The Show

The welcome reception for Mack in the NICU was insane. Because Macklin is such a rare case, everyone knows about him here at UIHC and everyone showed up to see him come back to his room and hear all about the surgery. Just check out these pictures of everyone who was here. We counted up to 20 people at one time. It was such a great feeling to dwell in for a moment after a very anxious day.

 

The Waiting Game

Now we wait. Some of Macklin's readings are already showing improvement. They came in and did an ECHO on him right away to see how the blood flow is changing in his body and how his heart is taking it. There are lots of good data points from the time before and after surgery that show he is just as good or improving. But, it's still a waiting game.

From here, we monitor if he has any seizure activity, how his heart takes the new blood flow, what happens when we let the PDA close, and how his other organs cooperate with all the new stuff.

They hope this can take care of lots of the problems for Macklin that he came to UIHC with, but we would wager that he'll need another surgery next week to keep trying to shrink the VOGM and improve the rest of his body.

Thank you again to everyone who is joining us in this journey and praying and rooting for Mack Attack.

Prayer Requests:

  • Celebrate the Lord Most High for answered prayers, for safety through this surgery today, and for a great outcome. 
  • For Macklin's body to take on the changes efficiently and purposely so that his heart is not stressed but refreshed, and that all other organs optimize after the tweaks today.
  • For no pain to be in Macklin's body after surgery, and that if there is, he would tell us so we can relieve him.
  • For the PDA to close with no repercussions on his heart like there was the first time we tried closing it.
Ways to Support
1) Prayers as noted above!
3) Venmo (@corynikkel)





Comments

  1. KendraJune 17, 2022 at 5:42 PM

    God bless you and keep you and your family. We will continue to pray

    ReplyDelete

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