Monday, November 15, 2010

Travis gets to meet his new Sister.


Travis checking out his new baby sister.
Thanks to Auntie Jen for this adorable Big Bro Shirt.
The DiCarlo Family
Travis being nice to his little sister.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Addison Sue

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Addison Sue DiCarlo

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Sibling Rivalry

So baby girl must have been jealous of all the attention Travis has been getting so she decided to break my bag of waters and arrive tonight!

We were just getting ready to go and I stood up to get Travis and felt a leak. It wasn't much so I honestly thought I wet my pants. I wasn't even going to go get checked out. Roger dropped me at the hospital and took Trav home. My friend Jen came over" just in case". Anyway, they tested the fuid and sure enough....it was baby time. A lot of our family is sick and can not be around Trav so we had no choice but to have my mom stay with Trav. I wanted her here but was happy to have good care for Trav. Csection was at 9. Addison was born at 942. She is small like her brother....she weighed 6lbs 10oz and is20 inches long. She looks like Travis. Our cardiologist just happened to be on duty tonight so he was in the room to do the check and apgar scores. She score a 10. Shortly after he did an echo and her heart looks healthy. Praise God!

All day yesterday the docs and! Nurses were joking and worrying about me going into labor with the stress and I was egging them on. Lol. I had to call Nurse Megan and let her know that her prediction was right! We seriouslu couldn't write this stuff up....our life is crazy. God is hilarious!

We are exhausted but happy. I feel great post surgery just real hot and itchy. Can't wait to see my family and Travis tomorrow. It is going to be amazing to watch him interact with her. We are blessed!
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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Travis is out of the hospital and Nicole is in one

The short story. Travis got discharged about four this evening and as we were signing the papers to release him, Nicole's water broke. Baby number 2 will be in our crazy world shortly.

Stay tuned.
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Friday, November 12, 2010

A Rough Recovery

So, scary is the word of the night. I don't think I have been this scared in quite awhile. Shortly after they moved us to the Intermediate Care Unit where we would be spending the night, things went south, quickly. I noticed that Travis was really red from his chest up on the walk over and mentioned it to the nurses but they dismissed it as part of the mild fever he was having. They fever never went away, even with Tylenol. Travis was SUPER irritable and just could not get comfortable. He was so sleepy but was thrashing around. His oxygen saturations kept fluctuating from the 50's to the 70s. They tried to put an oxygen cannula in his nose and he was irate about that. We COULD NOT keep it in. Not to mention he was screaming and WOULD.NOT.STOP. His heart rate was close to 200bpm. They called the cardiac team in. They did a quick echo and xray.....heart function looked good. They suspected that possibly it was a reaction to anesthesia so they gave him IV benedryl which calmed him a little but only as long as mommy held him and rocked him standing up. I tried to sit down several times and the screaming continued. To make matters worse the air in the room was not working so I felt as though I was going to pass out!

It was horrible when he is acting so out of sorts and the nurses kind of expect you to be able to figure out the problem. I was so frustrated today, I was in tears....nothing I was doing was helping!!! They kept leaving us in the room alone while he was screaming and flailing about. It really was terrifying when he was acting like that and his heart rate was so high!! I didn't know what to do.

Eventually, he calmed down enough to fall asleep on me. I managed to sit down with him. The doctors decided that they were not too worried with the crazy oxygen saturation since all of his other numbers looked good and he was looking calmer and more peaceful. After meeting, they came to the conclusion that this is probably an allergic reaction to the anesthesia and/or a horrible headache caused by the new pressures in his heart due to the stent opening. The plan is to let the anesthesia wear off (24 hours) and do another detailed echo in the morning just to make sure all is still good. His oxygen sats are still worrying me but the fellow keeps coming in and he seems calm about it. They have some oxygen blowing by Travis' head just to help a bit.

He did wake up from that earlier nap a little more happy. We put on Sesame Street videos on the computer and he was even dancing a bit to them. He definitely is fighting sleep still...he'll get so tired that he is sitting up with his eyes closed but then they will pop open and he will try to move around/dance/play. Right now, he is sleeping in the crib (first time all day I've managed to get him to lay in there and sleep). I am exhausted......Roger and I are splitting the night shift so my turn to rest is coming soon. I am hopeful that the morning will bring normal SATs and a back to normal Travis. I miss my happy guy....I HATE seeing him in discomfort/pain.

Pray for our little dude! Thank you.

Sleepy Head

Here is Travis in the recovery room. We just now got in to see him. He has woken up enough to chug 4oz of water. Poor dude is thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. We are headed to a regular room soon.



Out of the Cath

So, overall the cath went well. The crazy thing is the machine broke....right after they were finished with the major portion but before they were finished. So, here is the long and short of it all.

Travis' heart had good function and good pressures. Unfortunately, they saw narrowing in three places: the aortic arch, the pulmonary artery, and the sano shunt. The most extensive was in the shunt. They were able to balloon and stent that open. As for the the pulmonary artery...they plan to wait on that as it is not extensive. For the aortic narrowing, they wanted to attempt to stent it open but the machine broke. So, the plan is that we will need to come back for another heart cath procedure in 3 months. Since his heart function is good, they are comfortable waiting until then to try to open the stent. The Dr. said she was probably going to need to have him come back in 3 months anyway to close off some collaterals that have opened up by his pulmonary arteries.

In three months, they will attempt to open the aorta. Sometimes, they can do this in the cath lab and sometimes it requires reconstruction in the O.R. If they are unsuccessful in the cath lab, Travis' surgeon will need to decide if he wants to move up the Glenn/Fontan procedure and include the arch reconstruction OR do the reconstruction as a separate surgery (I presume that he would choose the ladder since the Glenn/Fontan combo is a big deal already). Again, the goal with Travis is to keep his heart function and Oxygen saturations stable until he gets to an age/weight that would be optimal for the Glenn.Fontan together (originally, we were told that would be 17-20 months old, so June-ish).

We will be staying overnight as the doctors want to make sure that the ballooning of the shunt doesn't do anything wacky. Please pray that he wakes up and is not in a lot of pain. We are waiting in the waiting room to see him.

Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts!

P.S. Have I mentioned that life with a heart hero is like riding a crazy roller coaster? It's crazy!

Travis is in the cath lab now

They said it should be 3-4 hours. Roger and I are on pins and needles waiting to hear what is going on with his little pulmonary branches. We had to sign forms saying that they could balloon or stent if need be. God, please let the narrowing be minimal and let them be able to stent it open in the cath lab!!!

The hard part about the cath lab is you walk him in and wait with him as they put a mask on with the sleeping meds. Poor guy was crying so hard! I just kept rubbing his sweet little head until he fell asleep.

I love the little guy so much! Pray for him!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween 2010

I love Halloween!!!!
Travis loved looking for the candy.
We think Sour Green Licorice is his favorite.
Yummy.
I like the Red Licorice too.
I love being a Turtle.
Nicole and Travis on Halloween.
Daddy and Travis on Halloween.
Our little sweet Turtle.