Carter Bradford Schanz: Diagnosis

Casey and I went back to our room in the hospital and waited to hear from the Surgeons. Finally the call came, they wanted to talk with us in person. They told us that Carter had no small intestines, and only 1/4 of his large intestines. His intestinal track stopped right after the duodenum and then began again in the large intestine. They would be able to connect thetwo ends together so that Carter would be able to eat. This could have been caused by a few things: Mal rotation or a blood clot, but the doctors weren't sure what would cause such extensive damage. They then presented us with many different options of how to care for Carter. This would prove to be one of the hardest decisions Casey and I would have to make.
Carter would be able to eat but he wouldn't get any nutrition from it. When he came out of surgery he would be on a ventilator, and have an IV into his heart, called a Broviac. Through the Broviac he would be able to receive the nutrition he needed to survive, called TPN, but this could not be a long-term solution. Ultimately, we had to decide how and when Carter would die.

Carter Bradford Schanz: Birth

As soon as we got to the hospital in Rexburg they hooked me up to a monitor, checked my cervix and called the University of Utah Hospital to arrange a plane to come and fly us down to Utah.  I was dilated to a 3.  The plane didn't get there until 1:00 am.  They gave me some shots to slow my contractions down, that was absolutely amazing since I had been having contractions for 2 1/2 days now, and then drove Casey and I to the plane.  We finally got to the U of U around 4:00 am Friday morning, and they hooked me up to patosin, (however you spell that), to get my contractions going again.  I finally got tired of those again and asked for an epidural, it went very smoothly and Casey and I took a nap.  They woke me up around 3:30 in the afternoon and said it was time to push.  So they wheeled me into another room, I pushed for about 20 minutes and there he was.  We didn't get to hold him right away, because they took him to the nursery for a check up.  He received a 9 out of 10 for the APGAR score.  As soon as they had hooked him up to all the IVs and got him ready for surgery they wheeled him into us so that we could see him.  They had him in an incubator, with 'lots of tubes, and sucking on a pacifier.  We learned that he was 5 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long.  Casey went with them to take him to the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital.  I was able to go see him a little later that night and hold him for the first time.  His surgery was scheduled for 9:00 the next morning, (Saturday).