Clinton Meyer
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Clinton Meyer was born on June 29, 1992. He had a normal birth, his Apgar scores were 8 and 9. The second day Clinton was here he stopped breathing and turned blue. We were told at that time that Clinton had a lot of mucus and would have to clear it. He continued to do this after he came home. At 2 and 1/2 months we called our first ambulance. My husband was trying to feed Clinton and he just stopped breathing. By the time the ambulance got here he was fine. Clinton never seem to eat right always bucking and fighting but he was so hungry. The next day I took him to his pediatrician and she put him in the hospital ran some tests and diagnosed him with reflux and delayed emptying. He would eat good some days and some days were nightmares to get food down him.
He had tubes placed in his ears at 6 months for chronic ear infections. We took him to a neurologist when he was 7 months old, to this day she has never been able to diagnose him with any disease or disorder, except for epilepsy which started when he was 11 months old. Clinton would go through bouts of what we call now cyanotic spells which are the spells he quits breathing and turns blue. Clinton has had all types of seizures, right now all his seizures are myclonic. He had his last cynotic spell on December 7, 1996. They seem to be few and far in between right now.
In January of 1996 Clinton was put in the hospital for pneumonia he spent a week that time. In March of 1996 he was put back into the hospital with pneumonia, this time they just could not get it to go away. Finally the doctor and nurses told us there was nothing they could do his lungs were completely involved and they did not know why. I made a appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist the best move I ever had made. We took Clinton to see him and he said he was refluxing into his lungs which was causing all the pneumonia and congestion.
Clinton got very bad one weekend before we saw the GI doctor and we took him to the hospital and his Oxygen saturation was 68 when we got there, the doctor was telling me there was a possibility we were going to have to put him on a respirator. But, he improved with breathing treatments. This time we spent five weeks in the hospital. The doctor did a saliva gram on him and said he was aspirating his own secretions. He ask us to put a trach in him and to do a fundaplication. He did not give us much hope because Clinton was so sick. During surgery the surgeon did a rough bronchoscopy on him and found a birth defect in his trach and lung area that we never knew was there. He also did a MRI on his trach area and concluded Clinton had tracheal malasia. He told me that when Clinton was eating by mouth he always had the choice of eating or breathing. So, that's why he always fought me so much to eat.
Clinton acquired asthma during last year but I feel it is hereditary. My father had severe asthma all his life and we lost him in January 1996 due to asthma related complications and all three of his grandchildren have asthma.
The thought of a trach use to upset my husband and myself so much, we were that way with the stomach tube also, but they have been wonderful for Clinton. He is doing really well right now. He still has seizures, but we keep a lot under control with meds and his asthma has flare ups but we pretty well keep that under control with breathing treatments, Albuterol syrup and a inhaler daily. Clinton is the joy of my life. His smile means so much to me. Everyone's life he touches he changes. Clinton is a tough little fighter, I think you would have to be to go through all he has gone through. I wish I would have had some information when he got his g-tube and trach. I had to learn it all on my own, but we did pretty good with all of it.
Lisa and Paul Meyer (e-mail: llkey@swbell.net)