Team Travis: Sunday Evening Update

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sunday Evening Update

For some reason we are not able to log on to blogger.com from the hospital right now. I am wondering if they didn't block our IP address because of the nurse issue we had the other evening. If they did, that would really be crappy. Anyway, that explains why our updates have been more periodic.

Travis continues to do well, All his numbers are looking good. He has been VERY grumpy and whiny over the last few days which is rather tough because nothing we do seems to soothe him very well. They have been giving him Motrin round the clock for aches and pains and also Tylenol as needed. They have also given him several doses of methadone as he showed symptoms of withdrawal from the morphine he was on after surgery. His tummy seems to not be working right quite yet and he is really backed up. This is adding to his discomfort. I am hoping that the next day or so will show some improvement in his mood. The good news is he is definitely have some periods of time where he is his old self. He has even been flashing that smile for us!!! That was a great mother's day present.

We are still having to share a room in the IMU which is horrible....our neighbor is super nice but she puts her TV up sooo loud. She also leaves her 8 month old all alone over night. That is kind of crazy to me. The nurses in the IMU have several patients assigned to them (often 4!) so they are not in the room that much. Unfortunately, this means that when our neighbor baby cries, no one rushes over to soothe him and then he ends up waking up Travis :( They keep saying they are trying to get us our own room but they are busy. 3/8 rooms on the cardiac pod are being used as PICU overflow......so, I am not keeping up my hopes that we will get our own room :(

Our prayer request tonight is for patience for mom and dad as Travis works through his aches, pains, and fussiness. It is difficult to stay calm when you are on little sleep and your sick baby is crying all the time and NOTHING will comfort him. Please also pray that Travis continues to well enough for us to be coming home soon. Hopefully, they will be able to send us home with a PICC line I.V. that would allow us to give the antibiodics for his blood infection from home. They have mentioned that they could, and would, do this if all else is looking good.

Thanks for all of the comments and support. It means a lot to us to hear from you ....especially when we are having rough days!!!

2 comments:

AndreaMay 9, 2010 at 8:50 PM
saying prayers for you always! You are all so amazing, hang in there!
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Wodzisz FamilyMay 10, 2010 at 4:08 AM
You all are continually in my thoughts and prayers. Patience is HARD...especially when you are in the hospital. Good luck with the roommates. At our hospital they have pods, so we are in a big room with 6 patients and it gets REALLY loud. I, too, am surprised when parents don't stay the night, but kind of understand...having 2 other little ones at home. My husband and I trade off spending the night so neither of us get too worn out. Praying Travis will be home and smiling again soon!
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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.....