“Helping a Critical
Baby Breathe More Easily”
For most families,
having a baby in their home is a time of whimsy and play.
Parents often spend hours reliving their own childhood as
they bond with their baby. For one North Carolina family,
their newborn sent them on a journey through the medical
field as they worked hard to help their child just to
breathe.
Arden was born healthy
and happy and seemingly normal until at 5 ½ months of age she
awoke with a cough. By that evening she was on a ventilator
in the intensive care unit. The cough had signaled a case of
pneumonia which revealed, to everyone’s shock, that Arden had
rare birth anomalies which included one lung and a greatly
narrowed trachea. After an extensive surgery reconstructed
her airway, she was on a ventilator for over 6 weeks and
spent six months in an ICU. Arden returned home much
different than she left. She returned home with a still
healing and fragile airway, a tracheostomy and a G-tube (a
surgically placed feeding tube in her
abdomen).
Even though she was
home from the hospital, she was still considered medically
critical and was quarantined to her home for nearly two
years. Arden is now a vivacious six year old. She no longer
has a trach or G-tube and is a very strong and determined
little girl.
During Arden’s lengthy
recovery at home, her Mom and Dad relied on Triangle
Compounding Pharmacy to help Arden through a very difficult
period in her young life. Arden’s Dad, Byron, remembers,
“Once at home, and under nursing care, with a compromised
airway and immunities destroyed, Arden was very susceptible
to infection. This often required special preparations of
antibiotics, which could only be compounded. We found
Triangle Compounding Pharmacy to help fulfill those
needs.”
Arden used several
medications provided by Triangle Compounding Pharmacy. “She
needed specialized antibiotics to help her get rid of
infections quickly.” Byron comments, “So, we were constantly
juggling antibiotics.”
Arden’s Mom, Laurie,
adds, “The Gentamicin she needed to fight off an infection
came in little vials, and I had to use a syringe to draw the
medicine out of the vials and squirt it in the medicine cup
of the nebulizer. This sounded like an easy enough endeavor,
except for the fact that I had a needle
phobia.”
Joe Cabaleiro spent a
lot of time with Laurie teaching her how to properly use a
syringe, and he helped to halt Laurie’s fears. “I remember he
would not let me leave without practicing how to draw the
medicine out of the vial several times until he was sure that
I was confident with whole process.” Laurie adds, “When I
left the pharmacy that day, I was totally
confident.”
Byron remembers a less
pleasant part of the journey, “A side effect of the
antibiotics was that Arden would have liquid bowel movements.
Several times, the ‘stuff’ would be so acidic, it would
actually eat away at the skin on her bottom, which would put
her in constant pain.”Laurie adds, “The pain was so severe
that Arden would turn her lips completely blue during diaper
changes.”
“We tried everything
we could think of,” continues Byron, “Desitin, corn starch,
none of it really helped. Then one day Joe told me he had
this ‘Butt Cream’ (that was his name for it) that would take
care of it. I remember the day he described how to use it;
you almost literally had to use a putty knife to put it on,
and it was impossible to clean off. But guess what? IT
WORKED!” In just a day or so the sores would start to clear
up, and everyone would be able to relax a
bit.
Arden has overcome
many of her challenges and still enjoys a good game of
soccer!
Byron smiles and says,
“I also enjoyed explaining to the insurance company what
‘Butt Cream’ was for. In the end (no pun intended) Joe
submitted each ingredient separately to the insurance company
to get it approved. He did this of his own volition, which I
thought was simply fantastic of him.”
Arden’s parents are
grateful to have the personalized support and care given to
them by Triangle Compounding Pharmacy. “The people at
Triangle Compounding Pharmacy are very knowledgeable; they
think beyond the prescription in front them, to what else
might help the patient, and they are extremely customer
oriented and quickly became part of our family.” Byron adds
as he walks out of his home after a hard day’s work to run
around the yard and play with Arden and his
family.