My name, as you've already figured out, is Wyatt. Mommy and Daddy found out they were pregnant with me just before Mommy was supposed to have surgery for Endometriosis. Mommy had an AFP test done at about eighteen weeks into her pregnancy. This is a normal test done to predict possible birth defects. My test came back positive for a neural tube defect known as Spina Bifida.
Mommy and Daddy were sent to a specialty doctor to have an Amniocentesis to confirm or deny this possible defect. The Amnio revealed that I did infact have Spina Bifida. This means that my spinal cord was not completely formed, and could cause many different problems. This scared Mommy and Daddy very much because they didn't know what it meant any more than most of you.
After many days spent crying and praying, they contacted the Fetal Surgery Team at Vanderbuilt Medical University in Nashville, Tennessee. They were told to send copies of the Amnio results and ultrasounds to Dr. Joe Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan at Vanderbuilt. Little did they know that we would be going to Nashville to meet these two extraordinary doctors. After discussing many positive and negative side effects of a controversial procedure to repair the lesion on my back...nineteen weeks before I was supposed to be born, Mommy and Daddy learned that I may not be able to walk without the help of braces, crutches or even a wheelchair. I had Hydrocephalus, which is also known as "water-on-the-brain." I also had what's known as the "Arnold Chiari" malformation, which is where my brain was being "sucked" from my skull into the base of my neck. I would most likely need a shunt, or a vavle placed in my brain immediately after I was born to drain the fluid from my brain. This would have been done after the lesion on my back was repaired. I could also have trouble emptying my bladder and/or bowels without catheders and laxitives.
I was operated on, inutero, on August 22, 2001. Mommy was put to sleep, as was I, and her uterus was removed. Then my amniotic fluid was drained. Next, an incision was made in the uterine wall, and my back exposed to the world for the first time. The lesion was repaired and I was tucked back into Mommy's uterus. My amniotic fluid was replaced, followed by me and Mommy's uterus being placed back into Mommy's tummy. Mommy and Daddy then got to wait a long and tedious sixteen weeks before I was born...AGAIN.
I was born on December 11, 2001 at 8:16 AM. I weighed seven pounds fourteen ounces, and was nineteen and a half inches long. I was also three weeks early. I am now six months old and have no shunt. I was placed in an orthopedic brace to reset my hips after birth as they were slipping out of their sockets. My pediatrician, Dr. Gerardo Lopez believes this was just because of the way I was in Mommy's uterus and not because of the Spina Bifida. I only had to wear that thing for about a month and no longer wear it. I kick both legs and soil my diapers all by myself. Daddy always says, "PEEEWWWWW!!!"
