Brandon Pollard
From Holoprosencephaly
Brandon Michael Pollard: Born August the 8th 2006
August the 8th 2006 Brandon Michael Pollard was born at 12:00pm. His journey into the world was about as normal as any of my other 3 pregnancies, except when he was born he stopped breathing. They told me it was because of the drugs that they had given me before I had him. I was scared and happy all at the same time. I waited to hold my baby after he was born, I waited for over and hour. I knew something was not right I had the nurse go and see what was up and they said his platlets were real low (blood count). They were trying to get to breath room air also. I said ok well can I go in the nursery and see him. They said yes. So I went in and and sat and watched him I knew something was wrong, but what.Well after about another hour I was told that they were going to airlift him to Arkansas Children's Hospital just to see what they thought could be wrong.
I asked my doctor to let me go so I could be with him and he agreed as long as I thought I could do it. I knew I could I felt fine it was my 4th child. I left the hospital and made it to Little Rock 3hrs later. I went straight to him in NICU he was so gorgeous I knew he would be ok, I could just feel it inside. At first they said " He is doing great his blood count is looking good and he is doing great" I just knew it, They even went to tell me he will be home in a week. I was so glad, my mom and husband went home and I stayed. The next day I went into see him and when I walked in I saw the lady doing the sonogram and I asked her if everything was ok, well she ignored me , I thought at the time she just didn't' hear me but I knew that was not it. Then here came is doctor, I thought she would tell me hes fine and he will come home tomorrow. No instead she went on to tell me it was nothing that I had done but he had missing brain tissue. I was in shock all I could think about was is he going to die. I even went as far as to ask her that. She said " Oh no he is doing great he just is going to be a very special little boy!" I did not know what to do, I told her excuse me and I walked out and went in the hallway and called my mom. I was so upset and by myself...I did not know what to do, I went back in and just touched his little head and prayed until I thought I was going to just break down.
I went back into the waitting room and got scared and then someone said I had a phone call, it was my old boss from work. He talked to me, oh how that felt so good to have someone to talk to, I felt better and then my mom and husband got there.
The rest is history we went over MRI results and found out he had alot of fluid and alot of missing tissue on oneside. His brainsteam wad intact and he could eat, breath and see. His life in NICU was short but it felt like a lifetime to me. He was doing so well I decided I could go home to my other kids and explain what was going on. Everything went well I went a few times to see him when I could. 2 weeks went by and they called and said " Hi Amber, this is Brandon's doctor and I wanted to know would you like to bring Brandon home?" I said " Oh Yes! Please! When?" We had to take a CPR class and stay one night in the hospital so they could watch him with us. It went well and as a precaution we were sent home with 1/8 O2 and he was on his way home.
Well 2 weeks went by and we got a call from the eye clinic saying he needed to come in soon. We went back and they proceeded to tell me that he had cataracts on both eyes. They would need to do surgery to remove them. I was scared a surgery, but I knew if I did not he would not be able to at all. Then we went home and a week later I noticed his head swelling and so I was back at the hospital and was told another surgery, a VP shunt would be placed in to drain the spinal fluid that was not draining right. I agreed the surgery went well 45min long. Then 2day later he had his eye surgery and it went well and then another 2weeks and his other eye went well. He wears contacts to replace the lens they removed.
Here it is 8mths later Brandons shunt is fine, his vision is impaired but we are getting Therapy for that. He goes to a special daycare that interacts with non special needs children.He gets PT OT and speech therapy.His shunt is working so well that they can already tell the difference in the brain, It is expanding.
They have told me that Brandon has Schizencephaly, Hydranencephaly, and Hydrocephalus. But he is doing so much for what is wrong with him. If you would like more info on Brandon and his problems please feel free to visit his sites and the sites for his problems.
