Team Travis: Practicing for Departure.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Practicing for Departure.

Travis is on track for coming home soon. He is eating very good since they took out his NG tube. He actually gets hungry now which is good and bad. The good news is that he eats because he wants to eat, instead of feeding him through a tube. The bad news is that he will let you know when he is hungry and little man can scream with the best of them.

Since the move to the IMU (Intermediate Medical Unit), we have been able to spend the night with Travis. Nicole spent the first 2 nights with him and I spent last night with him. The nurses are nice, but don't do very much as far as care for him. The thought process in this unit is for the parents to take care of the children so they can go home. The nurses are more of a security blanket in case we have questions or need something. It is nice to know that they are just a push of the button away.

This move was stressful at the beginning, but it turned out to be a good move. Keep up the prayers for a discharge soon. Travis just needs to continue to eat, eat, eat......

Take care and thanks for keeping up with our story.

2 comments:

Wodzisz FamilyDecember 12, 2009 at 5:13 PM
GREAT NEWS!!! It sounds like you will be out of there and home before Christmas for sure. What a wonderful Christmas you will have this year. He is absolutely adorable and he does look ready to be at home.
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Marilyn MillerDecember 12, 2009 at 6:25 PM
It's a good story to keep up with. Good luck with the move home. Travis has so much to see and do.
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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.....