Timeline

February 2, 2012:  Anatomy scan at 21 weeks gestation revealed a left sided congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

February 24, 2012:  Fetal echocardiogram with cardiologist in Greenville.  Bee's heart looks good as far as he could tell.

April 18, 2012: Went to Charleston (Medical University of South Carolina--MUSC) to see maternal-fetal medicine doctor, pediatric surgeon, and tour NICU.

April 25, 2012:  Based on today's ultrasound, part of Bee's liver is up above the diaphragm. Prior to this, it had looked like only stomach and bowel.

June 4, 2012:  Moved (temporarily) from Greenville to Charleston to be near a hospital (Medical University of South Carolina--MUSC) that has ECMO capabilities.

June 7, 2012:  Bonnie Brown Helms arrives via C-section at 11:24 a.m. Pink, crying, beautiful.

June 8, 2012: Bonnie is started on ECMO.

June 18, 2012:  Chest tube placed on right side to drain pleural effusion.

June 19, 2012:  Diagnosed with pneumonia (which ironically we were thankful for since it could account for some of her pulmonary hypertension).

June 22, 2012:  ECMO circuit changed.

June 28, 2012:  Bonnie is successfully taken off ECMO!

July 1, 2012:  Bonnie is started on dialysis, since her kidneys have not yet "woken up" after getting off ECMO.

July 5, 2012:  Bonnie has her hernia repair surgery and does *great*!

July 8, 2012:  Kidneys seem to kick in.  May be able to get rid of dialysis catheter soon (it has stopped working anyway).

July 9, 2012:  Momma gets to hold Bonnie for the first time. Great day. :)

July 12, 2012:  Bonnie is extubated!

July 19, 2012:  ENT evaluation reveals that Bonnie has a paralyzed right vocal cord.

July 24, 2012:  Due to abnormal newborn metabolic screens with elevated IRT, Bonnie has to have a chloride sweat test to check for cystic fibrosis.  It comes back negative (i.e. she doesn't have CF).