Meet our daughter Mylee
Grace Eaton. She was born on August 14, 2006. She
has been a fighter since the very beginning. Mylee
started having difficulty breathing and spent nine
days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where I fought
my first battle with aspiration pnuemonia. Her first
year of life was difficult, I spent a lot of time
in and out of hospitals battling more pneumonia and
trying to figure out what was wrong. Mylee was diagnosed
with severe dysphagia. She aspirates on everything,
which means she doesn't recognize when food or liquids
"go down the wrong pipe"...into her trachea
and lungs.
Her first MRI discovered
Mild Tonsillor Ectopia (aka Chiari Malformation).
She was to have another MRI scan at 1 year. In November
of 2007 she went in for another MRI and this time
she was diagnosed with a Chiari type 1 Malformation.
We met with her neurosurgeon as she lay in-patient
yet again battling another round of pneumonia.
On January 14, 2008 a
Nissen Fundoplication was performed so that she would
not aspirate stomach acid (I also had reflux/GERD).
Mylee's surgeon also placed a gastrointestinal tube
into her stomach. She is no longer able to eat or
drink anything by mouth. Everything is given to me
via g-tube until my brain starts to send the proper
signals allowing my swallowing muscles to work properly.
