Caden’s Page

I just got a call from the hospital. Caden has had his last IV line removed. At this time he has absolutely no IV lines. YEAH!!! They did not replace the line with a new one because Caden no longer requires IV medication. The doctors want to monitor him for a couple of days to make sure he maintains his strength before moving to the next step which will be feeding changes. Now that Caden has no IV lines and no breathing machine, we can hold him even more often. Up until now we have only been able to cradle Caden in our arms when holding him. I can not wait to hold him on my shoulder with his head against mine. Caden does still have wires running to his chest (I call them jumper cables). These are used to hook a pacing machine to him in the event it is ever needed. This is standard equipment for heart babies and does not affect how we hold him. We are suppose to be able to hold him on our shoulder for the first time tonight. Caden will remain in the PCICU until the doctors get a little more confident with Caden’s strength. Caden did weigh in today at 6 lbs 2 oz. Now that the nurse shift change is over and I have tucked Riley into bed, I am off to hold my baby boy Caden for a while.

I just got up and called the hospital. Caden is off the breathing machine. YEAH!!! Sherry was holding him so I did not get a chance to talk to her. I will update you more later.

Caden has been doing good for the past 24 hours. Caden has done great on his CPAP trials which exercise and test his breathing while the machine is in standby mode. We expect to hear the doctors talk about removing the breathing machine in the next day or two. Caden’s diarrhea continues to go away. Caden’s daily lab results (blood tests) have come back good two days in a row. They are so good that the doctors have not needed to make adjustments the PH of his blood in two days.

I know it is a weird hour to get an update. I ended up staying with Caden last night. He was doing okay but the nurses seemed to have a harder time getting Caden settled. I just did not feel comfortable leaving Caden with folks that might not be able to settle him. Too much excitement right now could tire him out very easily. I stayed through the night and Sherry relieved me at 5:00 AM this morning. Caden is becoming much more aware of his surroundings and he is reacting to Sherry and me when it comes to comforting him. He did great all night long. I got to hold him for about an hour and a half yesterday. Sherry got to hold him again too.

Please know that your prayers are being answered. Caden is acting much more like a one month old every day. Yes, he turned one month yesterday. We can not thank you enough for your continued prayer and support. Caden is a great success story for what God will do if you just ask and you get a front row seat.

Thank you again for your concern and love for our family. May God Bless You and Yours!!!

Hank O

If you are in the Charleston area you may be able to hear our story on the radio. A local FM station Coast 92.5 is running a “Coast-A-Thon” to raise money for the MUSC Children’s Hospital. We were asked if we would like to tell our story over the radio. The Coast-A-Thon runs through tomorrow. Our story has not been aired yet, but it may happen tomorrow.

Caden has been doing okay since my last posting. Caden is still on the breathing machine and the doctors have sent off a ton of tests. They are mainly just wanting to monitor him to see if he gets better as a result of the antibiotics wearing off. If the digestive problems have not been caused by the strong antibiotics used last week to treat his blood infection then they will start taking action based on the test results that they are waiting on.

Everything went fine for me yesterday. I was pretty wiped out when I got home. Sherry was amused by how much I keep forgetting things due to the medication I was on yesterday. Sherry made it through the day surprisingly well given the circumstances. I think it helped that the nurses let her hold Caden yesterday. I will try to leave a new update tonight.

Thank you again for your concern and love for our family. May God Bless You and Yours!!!

Today was not the best day Caden has seen. The doctors had to place a new drain tube into Caden’s chest between his ribs. This drain will allow some non-blood fluid to be drained from an area called the Thoracic duct behind the heart and lungs. This duct is were a bunch of little vein like tissue gathers liquid that is mostly fat cells and delivers the liquid into the blood stream. Caden has a leak of this duct or the tissue that comes together to form the duct. This is not uncommon for his type of surgery. The duct is very fragile tissue and can easily be torn or nicked during Aorta repair. Most patients heal fine with a drain and by eating things with a lower fat content. That said, Caden has been put on a formula that contains very little fat. This should minimize the amount of liquid collected and promote faster healing. This is a game of wait and see. This drain placement is nowhere near as serious as the ones that were put in place last week when his chest had to be reopened. The up side of this drain is that it relieved the pressure being put on Caden’s lungs that was causing him to not be able to take very deep breaths.

The doctors did remove the other central line running directly to Caden’s heart. All of the work today has made Caden more comfortable. He had a very fussy morning. The doctors and nurses believe that his fussiness was most likely from the pressure buildup caused by the collection of the fluid.

Caden started practicing his sucking skills with a pacifier today. This is a new skill for him even though he is two weeks old today. He has never had to suck because he has had a ventilator tube in his mouth from the day he was born until yesterday. He is still getting fed though a tube at this point. He will get a swallow test before they attempt to feed him by mouth. They will do this test with a barium substance in front of an Xray machine. This is of particular interest with Caden since there can be some GI track problems associated with Di George Syndrome. Thankfully there have been no other symptoms associated with Di George other than the congenital heart defect.

Please keep Caden and the rest of our family in your prayers. These days are expected in the recovery process of an open heart surgery, but they are still not easy days for any of us.

We have another praise report tonight. Caden had his chest closed today. We have just called his nurse one more time before we go to bed. She reports that he continues to do good as he has done all afternoon and into the evening. The doctors completed the procedure to close Caden’s chest this afternoon. Caden still has two drain lines and several sensors running from his chest. These will remain in for a while. He is still on the breathing machine and is fairly sedated.

Caden’s little neighbor had a much better day today. We talked to her parents again. We plan to have dinner with them one evening during the shift change while none of us can visit our children.

We have a praise report tonight. Caden has continued to improve little by little. The doctors and surgeons have scheduled Caden to have his chest sown back up tomorrow. Sherry and I visited Caden this evening after putting Riley to bed. Caden continues to improve ever so slowly. Since last night he has been completely removed from the epinephrine and his blood pressure remains steady. An echocardiogram was done today that showed improvement in Caden’s heart functionality from yesterday. The doctors are planning to close up Caden’s chest sometime tomorrow as long as Caden maintains his current condition. He will still have drain lines in his chest to remove fluid from around his heart. He will still be on the ventilator and several IVs. He is being kept fairly sedated, but he does open his eyes quite often when he hears Sherry or me.

One of Caden’s little neighbors in the PCICU is not having as good of a day. This little girl’s condition reinforces how much we have to be thankful for tonight. Her family is in so much pain. I reached out to her father tonight and told him that I had just got done praying for his little girl. Sherry and I held each other’s hand while each of us took one of Caden’s hands and we prayed. We thanked God for his answered prayers. We prayed for this little girl just lifted her and her family up to God. We asked God for continued improvements in Caden’s condition. Please continue to pray Caden and his little neighbor. Also look around you and find something that you have to be thankful for tonight in addition to God answering our prayers for Caden. I am thankful for the support that I am getting from each and every one of you. You do not realize how many friends you have until you get into a situation like ours. Our family, pastors, close friends, small group members, my coworkers and managers, neighbors, other families who are going through this, and other people that we have never even met have been so warm and comforting.

THANK YOU AGAIN !!!

I just got off the phone with Caden’s nurse. I am back home to get Sherry in bed. She has become completely exhausted over the past 36 hours. Sherry is doing well enough physically to be off of her pain medicine now for about 24 hours. Joe and Darla are staying near to Caden when Sherry and I take a break. I will be going back down for a little while tonight to check in on Caden.

Caden continues to make slow improvements. This is a very good sign at this point. He does still have an open chest with several drain lines as well as several ports to monitor pressures in specific places around his heart. He will probably stay this way for a couple more days until the fluid stops accumulating and the swelling starts to go down. The doctors have been slowly reducing the medicine that helps his heart to beat. They expect this progress to continue, but it will not be a fast process. He may be able to get completely off of one of the medicines by tomorrow.

A little history of the events from yesterday. They took Caden off to surgery at about 6:15AM. Caden went through the surgery with no major complications relative to open heart surgeries of this type. He was out of surgery shortly after lunch time. Later in the afternoon the doctors decided that Caden’s blood pressure was dropping enough over a period of time to make them want to take a look with an echocardiogram. They found fluid building up around his heart and was not draining off via the system that was already in place. The doctors opened the incisions on his chest to relieve pressure from the heart and allow for them to remove the excess fluid. The blood pressure did not react as they had expected and they started more medicine to help the heart work harder to get the pressure back up. They did another echo later and found that there was still fluid building up. They investigated and found some non-blood fluids behind the heart. A drain line was placed in a way to allow that fluid to be removed and the heart started picking up steam. That was late last night (approx. midnight I think). Caden has been improving ever so slightly since then.

Please understand that we are getting your messages and have just not had a chance to return all of the calls. It is all Sherry can do right now to balance out taking care of Riley’s need to see his Mommy and being there for Caden. She wants you all to know that she appreciates each and every one of you and will take calls and return them as time permits. Robin took calls for over three straight hours last night. There was a two hour stretch when she never heard the phone actually ring because a new call would come in over call waiting before she could get off another call. Robin, her daughter Andrea, and my nephew Kurt have been awesome the past two days taking care of Riley and your calls. Kurt was especially helpful when he realized he was talking to a telemarketer yesterday evening. Kurt asked the telemarketer, “Are you a telemarketer?” Their reply prompted him to say, “I thought you were somebody important.” He was referring to our friends and family. That includes every person who has taken the time to visit this web site and read this story.

Thanks again. Don’t forget to look at the new pictures. All of our love, Hank, Sherry, Riley, and Caden.

I wanted to take a quick moment to let everyone know how things are going. Caden is in critical but stable condition. The doctors tell us that the first 48 hours after this type of surgery is typically a roller coaster ride while the heart adapts to its new configuration. Caden still has his chest open to relieve pressure and allow for fluid to be drained off. He is not in pain. They have him in a medically induced coma.

Sherry, I, and Darla (Sherry’s Mom) came home in the middle of the night to try to rest. My sister (Becke), my Mom (Priscilla), and Sherry’s Dad (Joe) stayed at the hospital last night. Sherry, I, and her mom are headed back to the hospital in a few minutes.

I thank each and every one of you for your kind messages, thoughts, and especially your prayers. I want to give a special thanks to Adrian, Andrea, Darla, and Robin for stepping in and taking care of Riley and our home. One if them should be around the house if you do call there. Sherry and I will at the hospital if we are not resting. Sherry’s Mom and Dad as well as my sister and my Mom are taking turns at the hospital with us.

A big thanks goes out to Rich and Julie Young, Eric and Karen Olyejar, David and Jeanette Bulick, Kane and Leslie Wright, and Pastor Sherry and the prayer warriors of Seacoast Church. You are all a wonderful moral and spiritual support that is vital to us right now.

We will get more information out as we are able to.

KEEP PRAYING!

All our love, Hank, Sherry, Riley and Caden