Team Travis: Summer Fun 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

Summer Fun 2010

Travis went into the pool for the first time and loved it.

Travis and Daddy sharing a laugh.

Mommy and Travis swimming around the pool

Travis really liked playing with his float toy.

"What the heck is going on over there?"

Travis' cheesy smile.

Nicole and Travis had so much fun.

Nicole and Travis at the duck pond in Temecula.

2 comments:

JennyJune 29, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Your little man is sooo cute! I love the pictures with his hat sideways! :) Glad to see everything is going well! Enjoy your summer!
Jenny (mom to Aly-HLHS)
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ErinJune 30, 2010 at 6:03 AM
Nicole, I stumble onto your blog via another blog i follow...Enjoying the Small Things. When I saw in your comment that you had a baby with HLHS, I was curious. I am a perfusionist (I run the heart/Lung machine) at a childrens hospital in DC, and have had several heart surgeries as a child myself. Your little guy is just adorable, and it is great to see a family so positive. I don't often get to follow the progress of the patients who come into the OR, so it is always wonderful to hear about life after surgery, and that "Yes, I am making a difference in someone's life" HLHS is a difficult condition, but I cannot tell you how many patients we see come through here to get the fontan and make it through with flying colors. Babies are so incredibly resilient, I sometimes am amazed at what they can tolerate and bounce back from as if the surgery were nothing more than a scratch. I often think it is harder on the family than it is on the baby. Not giving up hope is half the battle.
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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.....