Team Travis: Heart Catheterization

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Heart Catheterization

Today was Travis' heart catheterization procedure at Children's hospital. We had the wonderful check in time of 6:00am which meant we had to get up at 4:15am to get down there in time. Travis was unable to eat after 3:00am this morning and we were fearing that he would be very angry during the check in and wait. However, he was a good little man and slept through most of it. We were told the procedure could take from 2-4 hours depending on if they needed to balloon any of the passageways due to narrowing. Fortunately, after two hours, the doctors came in and said that there was minimal narrowing (same as before) but nothing that required ballooning. We were told Travis would be ready for us to come see him shortly. We were kind of envisioning this horrible entry site from where the cath went into his groin. In reality, the two holes are no bigger than a needle stick. We are currently in the recovery room hanging out until 3:30pm at which time they will discharge him home. We didn't even need to stay the night because he did so well! Yay! More details of the findings (and the plan for the next surgery) will be shared with us at another point. The doctors will meet as a team to discuss Travis' case and then make a decision. For now, he is looking good and we are THANKFUL that things went so smooth today!

Thank you for your prayers!!!

Mommy and her little Bug snuggle a bit. Hoping it makes him feel better.

Travis resting after his big ordeal.

1 comment:

GenevieveJanuary 14, 2010 at 5:35 PM
I'm coming out of the closet here... this is genwebb from TheBump... I started following your journey quite some time ago and I just want to say that Travis and your family is quite often in my thoughts and prayers. I'm so happy the procedure went well. Your little guy's smile brightens my day and I hope you continue to post. I wish the best for all of you!

Gen
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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.....