Caden’s Page

We met with the heart surgeon this afternoon about Caden. They have scheduled Caden for surgery on Monday morning at 7:30 AM. We will be at the hospital a little before 6:00 AM on Monday so we can see Caden before the surgery. We learned from the surgeon that Caden has a fairly unique anatomy relative to his heart and arteries. There have been echocardiograms and CT scans run on Caden in the past two days that provided information to the surgeons detailing Caden’s anatomy. The results of these tests have told the surgeons that the surgery will be a little more complex than initially anticipated. The details are fairly technical and I won’t try to explain. It would take pictures and some terms that I cannot even pronounce half of the time.

I have just made sure Sherry was tucked in for the night and I am on my way to visit Caden before I turn in for the night. Sherry is her own bed for the second night in a row. She was discharged yesterday evening. She is doing okay, but she is very sore from the C-section.

We just had the most awesome visit with Caden. He seems so peaceful and comfortable in his new home at the PCICU. Sherry got him to open his eyes as you will see form the pictures. I will warn you that the pictures are of Caden show him in his full ICU getup. Get the tissues ready before viewing the pictures if you are a softy like me. Caden had a good night and is doing good today. You will also see from the pictures that Sherry is looking good too. I will probably get to break her out of this place later today so that she can sleep in her own bed tonight. We will keep you posted.

Prayer Requests: We thank you for your prayers. We ask that you all continue to pray for Caden. Pray that God will heal his heart without surgeons needing to touch him. Pray for God to guide the hands of all those who do touch Caden in the next few days and weeks. Thank God for the protection and comfort that he has given Caden. Pray that God will keep Sherry, me, and our family strong and faithful. Pray that God will heal Sherry and give her physical comfort to be able to travel back and forth to see Caden. Thank God for the blessings that he has delivered to us through gifts, services, and words of encouragement from so many different people.

We are on our way over to PCICU to see Caden now. We will get back to you with more information later.

Caden had an apnea spell while I held him Tues. night so he was put back on the breathing machine. The medicine which keeps his heart working till surgery has a side effect of apnea (stopping his breathing). This side effect will go away right after surgery when the medicine is stopped. They will keep him on the breathing machine till after the surgery. Caden had a blood transfusion Wed. night due to low hemoglobin levels. He does not have a high enough oxygen level in his blood due to effects associated with his heart defect plus the longer he’s here the more blood that gets drawn for tests. His body just can’t reproduce the blood as fast as they draw it out. Other transfusions are possible in the future.He has 3 separate IV’s and a line in his belly button each for a different purpose. They are running out of places to stick! Caden is a trooper. He shows a lot of facial expressions like his brother and can already lift one eyebrow like his daddy. He often responds by opening his eyes when he hears our voice.Oh, almost forgot. We finally know how long he is…19inches!Thank you all for your continuous prayers.

At this moment Sherry is resting and I have just returned from the PCICU. Caden has settled into his new area without incident. We were told earlier this evening that the surgery will not happen until early next week. We should have more definite scheduling information from the pediatric cardiologist later today.

I forgot to mention how great of a time Riley and I had today. We played in the MUSC Children’s Hospital Atrium. It is a really cool place for the patients and family of those here at the Children’s Hospital. Riley is not allowed to see his baby brother but he can visit Mom. He and I played and then had lunch while Sherry and her Mom visited with Caden today.

Sherry and I just got back from the NICU. We have been told that Caden is being relocated to the PCICU tonight. This is the ICU that focuses on pediatric heart patients. They have been at 100% capacity since Caden was born and now one of their eight beds is open. This will mean that Caden is one step closer to his surgery. We have been told that Caden could get his surgery as early as tomorrow morning. We are not going to count on that just yet because it is Thursday evening and I would have expected to have signed a consent form by now if the surgery was actually going to happen tomorrow. We will just have to wait and see. Stay tuned for more information. I will try to keep this site a little more current.

Well, It has been an eventful two days to say the least. I won’t bore you with the nasty details. The bottom line is that Caden is doing great on the NICU grading scale. He has passed all test so far related to the 22q11.2 deletion. For those of you who are not aware, there was a test two weeks ago that displayed a possible chromosome abnormality. God is showing these doctors up here who is really in charge. Caden is passing one test after another with flying colors and the doctors here at MUSC are starting to doubt whether they can actually classify Caden as having full blown Di George syndrome. At this point, he is not showing any other markers than the heart defect which we have known about since July.

Sherry is doing pretty good. She is up and walking around several times per day and eating normal meals now. She expects to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow or Saturday.

ME?…I am standing with faith that God will see us through. Sherry continues to remind me, “This too shall pass.” I don’t know where it originated, but Anne Marie Ezzo has said it a couple of times in our parenting videos.

Caden Gabriel Osborne was born this morning at 9:17AM. He weighed 5 lbs 14 oz at birth. Caden is doing fine. He had some assistance with breathing for a while today, but he’s off the breathing machine now. Initial results from tests that have been run on Caden have given us no surprises. He is still looking at open-heart surgery in a few days to a week.

Sherry is doing great and recovering well. She is supposed to be able to hold Caden for the first time this evening. More pictures to follow. HO