Team Travis: Out of Surgery

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Out of Surgery

We got the call that Travis was out of surgery and rushed over to the NICU waiting room to talk to the surgeon. The surgery took only a couple of hours and were anticipating good news. Dr. Lamberti said that everything went well and according to the revised plan. Travis is recovering in the NICU. We only get to see him 5 minutes at a time every hour. He has alot more tubes, wires, and machine attached to him, but he looks peaceful. Hopefully in the next few days they will be able to determine why he failed the gas tests. Then the Norwood Surgery will be scheduled according to his strength. Dr. Lamberti said that the Norwood would go much easier if he can recover well from this.

This just puts our timeline for baby Travis to come home back further than we had hoped.

Thank you to all of you who took a second in thinking about our precious little boy Travis. We definitely feel the love and support from all over.

Roger & Nicole

Illustrations of what HLHS is and surgeries. Thanks to the Dunn's and Grace
http://www.heartofgrace.net/WhatIsHLHS.html

2 comments:

AnonymousOctober 29, 2009 at 3:46 PM
We are all thinking of Travis and praying for all of you. Don't you dare ever feel that any of this is yuor fault. Trust me when I say you are dealing with the hardest thing you will ever experience in life. You both are amazing, and giving everything to Travis. If you need anything don't hesitate to call.

Jeff and Renae Meyer
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Wodzisz FamilyOctober 29, 2009 at 3:49 PM
I am so glad he is out of surgery and doing good. I will continue keeping all of you in my thoughts and prayers as he continues along his journey.
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Travis Gary DiCarlo

Travis Gary DiCarlo, first son of Roger and Nicole DiCarlo, was born at San Diego Kaiser Hospital, October 23, 2009 with a Congenital Heart Defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, or HLHS. The short explanation is that Travis was born with only half of a heart. In order for him to live, a series of three operations were planned.

Due to an infection, Travis had to have an additional open heart surgery to insert pulmonary artery bands on October 29, 2009. He had his Norwood Surgery on November 21, 2009. He was sent home on December 14, 2009 from Rady's Children Hospital of San Diego after spending his first 52 nights of life in the hospital.

After being home for several months, Travis was due to for his next surgery in the plan, the Glenn procedure. But the life of a cardiac kid can change in an instant and life doesn't always go as planned. Due to the anatomy of his heart and some rhythm issues, Travis had what the surgeons called Norwood part 2. They replaced his Sano Shunt with a bigger one, enlarged his pulmonary arteries and installed a pacemaker. This surgery was performed on May 3, 2010. Travis went home on May 17th, 2010.

Around Travis' first birthday in October his cardiologist detected some narrowing in his pulmonary artery and ordered a heart cath. The heart cath showed extensive narrowing in his aorta and his pulmonary artery. On February 17, 2011 Travis had his 4th open heart surgery. He was doing well with recovery until he suddenly went into cardiac arrest on Friday (2/18). After two hours of CPR Travis was placed on ECMO (a heart/lung bypass). Although his heart did begin to beat again on its own, his brain was damaged during the whole ordeal and he lost all brain function. We had to say goodbye to our beautiful boy on Saturday, February 19th. We miss our boy terribly.....