Hunter Thomas Reeve was born on March 12, 2009 at 2:38 in the morning at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. Hunter weighed 6 pounds and was four weeks early but appeared to be a healthy baby boy.Although Hunter was eating well he was steadily losing weight. Three days after his birth Hunter was released from the hospital and made the trip home. Due to the weight loss Hunter was brought back to the St. Thomas hospital and after a series of tests it was found that Hunter was severely dehydrated. An IV line was started in the top of Hunter’s head because he was too dehydrated for the nurses to find veins anywhere else in his body.Hunter was rushed by ambulance to the Children’s Hospital in London, where he stayed on the IV while doctors and nurses diligently tried to determine what was causing the dehydration. By this time Hunter was down to almost four pounds and struggling to stay alive. Hunter fought hard (even managing to rip out the lines that the nurses kept putting in) and was stabilized thanks to the staff in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit. Without their care Hunter would not have lived through the night.After exhausting all of the non invasive tests, doctors from many specialty units were brought in to try and find out what was causing Hunter’s illness. Dr. Bax of the Pediatric Gastroenterology team was brought in, and in Hunter’s first week of life, he had his first surgery. A sample of Hunter’s small intestine was obtained through a biopsy and sent off for analysis. This is a rare procedure to have done on a baby and is not part of routine testing. Miraculously enough, this procedure determined the cause of Hunter’s decline: his small intestine was not absorbing any nutrients from his food. In fact, Hunter was outputting more than he was taking in.Hunter was diagnosed with an extremely rare and potentially life threatening disease of his intestines called Microvillus Inclusion Disease (MID). This disease prevents Hunter from absorbing any nutrients through his small intestine making him completely dependent on Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN). TPN is very hard on Hunter’s liver but the only other option is a small intestine transplant.At first it seemed like a very grim prognosis as the complications with transplant are many. But there is hope: an experimental treatment called Omegaven. Omegaven couples Omega 3 fatty acids with TPN which greatly reduces the risk of liver damage and may assist in its repair. Unfortunately, Omegaven is not currently covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) or independent insurance companies.This disease only affects one in five million people. Hunter is the twelfth known person suffering from this disorder in North America right now. Currently there is no cure for Microvillus Inclusion Disease. Hunter needs constant medical care and the cost can be overwhelming to a family. There is very little coverage for in home support for families battling MID; as this disease is rare it is not typically covered by OHIP. Although Hunter’s Omegaven is currently being paid for it is unknown how long it will remain covered and what challenges this little boy will face in the future. Because MID is such a rare disease more research is needed to find other treatment options that are not as detrimental to the health of those affected. Hopefully someday this research will lead to a cure. Hunter needs your help to stay home. With your support we hope to make this dream a reality. Please help – because every baby deserves to grow up.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Finally....

Hunter is finally home....the only nice thing about being at the hospital is the people we meet...there always families who have come in that we can share our experience with and hopefully help them on their journey will in patient...

Hunter is home and napping without interuption.....accept for our dog barking which he apparently has to get used to again!

We will be starting ethanol locks 3 times a week which in theory will help prevent line infections...we also bought some rubber pants to see if that helps with leaking throughout the night....we'll try anything if it will help with these potentially fatal infections...
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Hope for Hunter

Please enjoy the video we made for the Hope for Hunter fundraiser which was held on Saturday, September 19, 2009. It was alot of fun even though Hunter could not make it to his own party. Thanks to everyone involved in its success.....

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Hunter's Infection

Hunter is doing much better...thank you for all of the support and well wishes...

On Monday morning Hunter had a bit of a temp and he was lethargic so we brought him into emerg. We had given him some tylenol so his temp was ok when we got there...he seemed fine so they were going to send us home. Since he has his normal blood work on Mondays, they took blood from his line and changed his dressing. Hunter's line was flushed and within minutes he began to make a steady, hard grunting noise and was crying...obviously not normal. We got the nurse and she took his temp...it had shot up to 38.9 celsius (102.02 fahrenheit). Hunter's feet started to swell and they turned purple and blue. We pointed this out to the doctor and he said Hunter was clenching his feet....which he was not! Then his hands turned purple and blue...we again pointed this out...with the same response...Hunter's hands were wide open! The nurses tried for 45 minutes to get an IV in but couldn't so they got the expert down but since they had blown all of the sites she had to put the IV in his head.....later Hunter's doctor said he really didn't need an IV since he has his broviac but I don't think they wanted to use it for fear of causing another reaction....needless to say Hunter had to endure that which is very scary and helpless for us to watch.

Antibiotics were started and Hunter stabilized. He had a toxic reaction which gave him a high temp and high respiratory rate with a low blood pressure. This can lead to toxic shock which can be fatal. Thankfully Hunter recovered from the episode but they watched him very closely any time they did anything with his line. We are very glad this did not happen at home....

Hunter grew 2 bugs similar to the infection he had 2 months ago. They are different but still from a "leaky" gutt. They do not have plans to pull his line at this point because it is a different infection.

Hunter is becoming more himself but he is very tired from the antibiotics. We will likely be in hospital for at least 2 weeks.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hunter admitted with another infection

Hunter has been admitted back into hospital as of Monday...he will likely be there on antibiotics for the next two weeks...will post more info when we've had a chance to process it all...
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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Challenging Hunter's Gut

We continue to challenge Hunter's gut....we have started giving him rice cereal once a day along with his bottle which we give him once per day. We give both of these during the time he is off his TPN...he's off 6 hours a day....he does seem to get hungry during this time and the small amount of oral food he is given has not made him stool any more than usual...and he seems to like the food!! I'd like to start pureeing some food and see what happens...

Hunter has moved on from thumb sucking to index finger and middle finger sucking...he's so funny...he has also decided to start rolling over at every opportunity during the night! He's been rolling over since he was 7 weeks old but at that time it was just something he did every once in awhile likely unvoluntarily...but now he just rolls over all the time...the thing with him doing it during the night is he realizes he would rather be on his belly but won't roll himself back over...which keeps us up...and he rolls into his line and gets a little tangled...so we have to keep a close watch on him....

All in all Hunter is doing great...he weighs 13lbs 12oz!!! What happened to my little 6 pounder!!! He is filling out in his face and legs...what a difference from when he was so sick....he is truely amazing!

The final plans for the fundraiser are coming together....we have some great door prizes and silent auction prizes...it's going to be a fun day....hope to see you there....
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