Team Travis: Simple, Painful things

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Simple, Painful things

It hurts my heart at the tiny details of you that I can't exactly recall. Simple things like changing a boys diaper vs. a girls. I have a boy...a beautiful, missed boy. But, I can't exactly recall the details. That hurts my heart more than I can explain. Why can't I remember those details...the happy ones? The horrible memories haunt me. I can vividly recall those moments. It's all unfair.

1 comment:

Beard FamilyNovember 3, 2012 at 5:11 PM
I haven't been able to check my blog lately so once I got the chance I came here. I love it here. I like reading about your family, I know you miss Travis, I cant imagine how much it hurts but I miss him too. I've never met him but I would give anything to have been able to. I wish there was something that could make this easier. I know there are things you dont say to a grieving mother and I don't know if this is one of them but I hate that this happened, I wish things were different for him, for you. I just want you to know my husband and I think of him all the time. he will never be forgotten in our family.
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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.....