Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We've created it to keep friends and family updated about our little Caffrey.
Visit often to read the latest journal entries, visit the photo gallery, and write us a note in our guestbook.
Our baby boy has a special heart and has been though a lot in his short time that he's been here.
Our sweet baby boy was born on May 10, 2011. He is perfect but we have found out he has a special heart. On May 13th he started to get sick. We got him to the clinic and were rushed to the hospital. Once we got there a team of doctors set in to help our baby and they discovered he has a heart defect. His aorta didn't form. There is an artery in his heart that was used before birth. This artery typically starts to restrict and close a few days after birth. When this closes is when his aorta would typically start functioning to bring the blood to his body, which was causing him to become sick. His body was going into shock. It took a lot of work from some amazing doctors to pull his body out of this shock and start to get him stabilized. There is a medication to open up his artery that closed so it would start functioning again to keep his heart working for him.
*On May 31st, 2011 Caffrey had his first open heart surgery. This surgery used his pulmonary artery and reconstructed it to form his "new" aorta. A shunt was placed to be his "new" pulmonary artery.
*June 22nd, 2011 Surgery to place G-Tube. Caffrey is aspirating when he swallows so we needed the gastronomy tube so we can get home!
*June 25th, 2011 After 6 weeks in the hospital...we are HOME!
*August 18th, 2011 Heart cath procedure to take measurements of an area of restriction in Caff's aorta. Narrowed portion had more blockage than they had expected.
*August 22nd, 2011 2nd heart surgery. Caffrey had a thoracotomy done to access the back part of his aortic arch for revision.
*October 6th, 2011 Cath procedure done to check in on the restriction that is still present in his aortic arch.
*November 22nd, 2011 3rd heart surgery. Another left side thoracotomy done to do more revision on his aortic arch.
*December 1st, 2011 Switched Caffreys G-Tube to GJ-Tube
*December 2nd, 2011 Plication of left diaphragm and wash out around left lung.
*December 22nd, 2011 Home! Ready to celebrate the holidays before the next big surgery.
*January 3rd, 2012 2nd Open-heart surgery. His VSD was closed and shunt was replaced. Last scheduled repair!!
*January 27th, 2012 FINALLY Discharged and SO glad to be home!
*January 30th, 2012 Visit to the ED...Caff is back at home and on oxygen.
*February 9th, 2012 Heart cath procedure to take measurements of pressures in Caff's heart. A stent was placed in his right pulmonary artery.
*February 29th, 2012 Bronchoscopy today to see what's going on with Caff's lung.
*March 2nd, 2012 Back home after bronch and with high-flow set up.
*March 8th, 2012 Off of oxygen!!
*July 3rd, 2012 Surgery to re-site G-Tube. 3 night admission.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Caffrey is attending Odayin Winter Camp this weekend with his heart family. He has been wishing for this snow! We’d love for you to make a donation to support Odayin in honor of Caffrey and Congenital Heart Disease awareness week. You can learn more about Odayin here: www.campodayin.org/ (http://www.campodayin.org/) and make a gift here: www.campodayin.org/donate (http://www.campodayin.org/donate)
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