Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi - (Page 5)

all packages first time you see your baby with all those tubes … ” Julee says, remembering how scared they were. “His entire body is moving when his heart beats.” During the month that Cayden spent in the NICU, his parents prayed, sang and read Scripture to him every day. They also came to appreciate having such an expert, caring staff and advanced services close to home. “I can’t imagine going through all of that and not having a good staff or being far away from home,” Julee says. “They were gentle to the babies and comforting to us.” Cayden wasn’t the only baby his parents prayed for; they stopped outside every room to pray. “We thought Cayden had it bad,” Julee says, “but some of them were having a rough time. These mothers have no idea we prayed for their babies.” Cayden’s every milestone—like going from tube feeding to drinking from a bottle—was monumental. “We called about 1 a.m. every morning to see how much he weighed because we knew they would have just weighed him,” Curtis says. “We celebrated the small stuff.” He weighed slightly more than 5 pounds when his parents took him home. “Cayden was fine, but we weren’t fine,” Curtis remembers. “I don’t think we slept.” But Cayden has since proved he can hold his own, even roughhousing with his older brother, Carter. “Cayden outweighs Carter by five pounds. He is so strong now and such a fighter,” Julee says. “You would never know he was once fighting for his life.” The McCoys are helping their son Brysen become stronger every day. An EArly ArrivAl Rodney and Ketra McCoy of Southaven suffered two miscarriages before becoming pregnant with son Brysen. Ketra was diagnosed with incompetent cervix, a cervix that is too weak to stay closed during pregnancy. To give this pregnancy its best chance, obstetrician/gynecologist Eric Webb, M.D., stitched Ketra’s cervix closed, a procedure known as cerclage. Brysen was due Nov. 25, 2011, but he began trying to make an early appearance in mid-July. Webb ordered strict bed rest for Ketra, who works as a registered nurse in Southaven. But when her water broke two weeks later, Webb performed an emergency cesarean section at the NMMC Women’s Hospital. Weighing only 1 pound, 5 ounces, Brysen was whisked off to the NICU. “A dollar bill was actually longer than he was,” Ketra says, noting that Rodney could slip his wedding band all the way up Brysen’s arm. The McCoys took advantage of being able to stay in Brysen’s NICU room throughout his stay. “It was very important to us to be by his side at all times,” says Ketra. “Nothing could keep her away,” adds Rodney. Older brother, 11-year-old Ferrod, first visited when Brysen was only 2 days old. Visits became more difficult when the McCoys returned to work, but they came as often as possible and called several times a day to check on him. Brysen withstood several months of ventilator assistance, blood transfusions, tube feeding, medications to keep his blood pressure up, X-rays, antibiotics, CT scans, eye exams and more. Throughout it all, the staff taught his parents how to help care for him. “They try to simulate the womb, so they taught us to keep him really swaddled in his blanket,” Ketra says. “Premature babies like to feel confined, and it helps keep his muscle tone having something to press against. “When he went from tube feeding to taking a bottle, they taught us how to properly position him so that he could breathe while he eats. They taught us to pace him because he was sucking so fast.” Like many others, after spending months in the NICU the McCoys have come to regard the staff as family. “This NICU really impressed me,” Ketra says. “The staff is very knowledgeable, and I couldn’t have asked for better.” Time for a Reunion Vim & Vigor • SUm mer 2012 5

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Big Gifts Come in Small Packages
A Voice of Experience
The Breakfast Club
Arthritis Answers
A TV Guide to Radiology
Take Aim
It Might NOT Be Cancer
Colin Firth
Step Up to the Plate
Life After Cancer
Get Dad to the Doc
Virtual Health
Point, Click, Discover
Ready to Serve
A Unique Kind of Doctor
Barbershop Talk
Catch the Spirit

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi