Welcome to the Mack Attack

 Dear Family and Friends,

Over the past few days, we have been on the ride of a lifetime. We hope it's a once-in-a-lifetime ride, but even so, the love and support our family has received from you all is incomprehensible. Thank you.

Two days into this journey, by way of a friend of a friend of a friend connection, we were introduced to a family in Des Moines who has had a son born with a Vein of Galen Malformation (VOGM). We have since learned that the chances of being born with VOGM is 1 in 3 million. To find someone else in Des Moines, IA was jaw-dropping, and also gave us some hope to understand more of what Macklin is up against. Through conversations with them, their son who is now a healthy and astute Kindergarten graduate, quickly named Macklin "Mack Attack" because he believes Macklin is going to attack this thing with everything he has in him just like he did.

So here we are, Day 4 of Macklin attacking a serious, rare malformation in his brain. Below is the first update we sent to friends, family, and the social media world upon Macklin being whisked away from us an hour after birth.
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6/8/2022

We welcomed Macklin Jon Nikkel on 6/8/22 at 11:45AM. Weighing 7lb 11oz and 20in. Within an hour or so after being born, he was rushed away to the NICU at Blank Children’s Hospital. The Blank Children’s NICU staff did an amazing job going through multiple tests and determined that Macklin needed to be life-flighted to UIHC around 6pm that night. Once arriving at UIHC the staff and doctors confirmed what the team at Blank had suspected and Macklin was diagnosed with Vein of Galen Malformation. While we are very grateful for a diagnosis, it is a very rare, serious and complicated diagnosis.

Courtney and I made it into Iowa City around 1:30AM this morning and have met with so many wonderful doctors, surgeons, nurses and staff since then. It has been determined that Macklin will need multiple surgeries to fix the malformations in his brain in the upcoming days, weeks, months and maybe further. We aren’t sure what this entails or any further details as we are still waiting to hear more from our NICU and neurosurgical team. We are so thankful for the doctors, nurses and staff we have met with so far and the care that he is getting at UIHC.

We appreciate continued prayers and support in this difficult time. We have both cried so many tears throughout this journey so far and while we don’t understand why God chose Macklin for this journey, we do trust He is in God’s hands. We are so thankful for all our friends and family who have already been praying for Macklin and we are thankful for a God who sees it all.

Specific prayer requests:

1) That God would work a miracle and reroute and replace the blood vessels in his head that are doing damage to his brain and body.

2) That Macklin will continue to grow big and strong so he is as ready as he can be to take on these surgeries when they need to happen.

3) That the doctors would have wisdom in all of their calculations and insights as they give us options for Macklin and then go on to execute them.

4) That Courtney would recover quickly and be able to be mobile to be mom to both Keira and Macklin.

Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

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