Heavy hearts

It is with heavy hearts that we announce our dear little Henry passed away on Thursday. He touched so many lives in his four years, and was loved by all who met him. In spite of his CHD, Henry was full of life and spirit, and we are so incredibly grateful for the time we had with him.

Services to celebrate his life will be held on Saturday, February 2nd at First Congregational Church.

In lieu of flowers, we ask for contributions to a memorial fund at CoreFirst Bank and Trust. We will be coordinating with Topeka and Shawnee County Parks and Rec on getting a swing set placed in Henry’s memory. Donations may also be made in his name to other organizations who helped us in Henry's journey, including the TARC Tiny K Program, TDC Learning Center, the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Sisters-by-Heart, or Children's Mercy Hospital.

We are so thankful for the wonderful staff at Children’s Mercy for all they did for our sweet boy.

A full obituary will be posted soon here:
https://www.penwellgabeltopeka.com/Obituary/168008/Henry-Caudle/Topeka-Kansas

Mondays are for Cardiology Clinics

Henry had another post surgery follow up today at Children’s Mercy Hospital. We started off with labs, then to xrays, had an ekg, then spoke with his Cardiologist.
Everything looked great! Because of this...
We are stopping yet another diuretic! We are also going down to one instead of two dosages a day on the remaining diuretic, lasix.
We also got a call today that Henry’s heparin levels are still on the low side (but still therapeutic) so we are going to go up on that dosage. We see hematology in two weeks to check on the blood clot.
Henry’s energy level has been great. We are worn out most days chasing him around. Last week he has been riding his tricycle with his new helmet after dinner.
We head back up in six weeks to see cardiology and go from there!
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Another good appointment

We had our first visit with Henry’s cardiologist since surgery. We last saw her a month before his surgery. Before our visit, we did lab work and an x-ray. The lab work showed that Henry’s sodium level was normal, so we got the clear to stop the extra salt! We also have been able to drop one of the diuretics from three times a day to twice a day. The final good news is we can let Henry drink up to 30 ounces of water! This helps significantly since before, Henry really only drank water and milk. And it is also hot out, and we haven’t liked being out too long since we couldn’t guve Henry muh water. The low fat diet was also stopped last Friday. We haven’t let Henry go overboard, but he did make a meal of chips, salsa, and cheese dip Saturday night. We are also getting closer to his weight before surgery!

We head to the local hospital tomorrow to check on his blood thinner levels. Overall, the twice a day shots are becoming more tolerable, but Henry will have good and bad days with them. Please keep him in your prayers that we will be able to discontinue this in September and go back to aspirin.

We had a good 4th of July! Henry, at least at this point, is no longer scared of the noise. I tried my luck with using the spinning toothbrush on him, and he is now using his spinning Marshall toothbrush! We see the dentist next month.

We head back up Friday for another round of labs and xray. Hopefully that will be our last visit up to Children’s for awhile, as we will be back up in five weeks to meet with Henry’s cardiologist again.

Happy 4th!

Just a small update to wish everyone a happy 4th!

Henry continues to do well each day. The twice a day shots keep improving as well. We had one day a couple of days ago where Henry fought both of us. To help, we are doing a weekly sticker chart and letting Henry decide where he would like to sit to do the shot. Henry gets to pick out a prize each week after filling out the sticker chart.

We head back to Children’s Mercy on the 9th. This is to visit with his cardiologist as well as check on Henry’s recovery process. If all goes well, hopefully we can remove or change the frequency on the remaining diuretics he is still on.

Have a happy and safe 4th!

First week home

Wednesday we made our way to Stormont Vail Hospital where we had Henry’s blood tested for the first time since being home. His level was on the low end, so they have increased his dosage on his twice a day shot, but with the holiday next week, we won’t need to go back until July 11th to check on how the blood thinner is doing. A plus for Henry! He is “improving” with his twice a day shots.

Today we headed back up to Children’s Mercy to have more blood work, x-ray, and short echo done to see how his heart is doing. Everything looked good or normal! We will now be able to give Henry 20 ounces of water a day, stop one of three diuretics, but we need to add more salt to his diet. Probably the only time cardiology will say “limit your water, eat more salt!” Henry is still on a low fat diet until next week. I believe a chocolate croissant will be requested once this has been lifted.

The stitches have been removed where his drain tubes were at. The site there, as well as his chest, still look good! The chest will take 4-6 weeks to heal. Let me tell you, it’s been a little more of a challenge to pick him up by scoping him under the bottom.

I apparently spoke too soon earlier, as we have started up on the Tylenol again, at least once a day. The oxycodone has also been removed from his prescibed medicines.

Henry is taking about two naps a day. He is taking his normal after lunch nap, but about an hour after his morning shot, he will usually take a long cat nap.

He is also not sleeping that great at night. Since he is being limited on water still, we haven’t been able to give his mug of water to take to bed. Hopefully not having that, and some mild pain, is what causing the sleeping problems. The fireworks probably aren’t helping the situation right now either.

Still, not too bad for having open heart surgery a little over two weeks ago! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support! We head back up to see Henry’s cardiologist on July 9th. Hopefully another good report!

On the recovery road

We are not even two weeks post surgery and today we did not give any pain medicine to Henry! What a little rock star, or as he will say, Super Fontan. FYI, Sisters by Heart has a cute book called Super Fontan in their care packages for kids who will be having the Fontan Surgery. It’s where the cape came from too!

http://www.sistersbyheart.org/content/nominations

Wednesday will be a test for all three of us, as we will be heading over to Stormont Vail to have blood drawn to check on the blood thinner levels. These shots are not to be taken lightly. They have been our largest struggle since getting home. We have started a sticker chart for Henry for each time slot he is either doing medicine or having the Lovenox shots. Tonight we even entertained Henry by going to a different room, and having a small bag of M&Ms afterwards.

Henry is doing well on the liquid restriction. He is currently limited to 12 ounces of water a day. This hasn’t been as big of a struggle, but he will ask for water, so we will offer him something else. For the most part, he will take us up on the offer. We have stopped giving him a glass of water to go to bed with for the time being.

The fat restriction (41-45 grams) hasn’t been too bad either. I won’t be taking him to Starbucks and the Farmers Market while on the restriction, as his favorite thing is chocolate croissant. (Just one is half his allowed fat grams for the day)

Thank you friends and new friends for the wonderful things that have been sent to Henry! They have allowed us to do some fun things rather than just chilling in front of the screen.

We head back to Children’s on Friday to have more blood drawn, a chest xray, and visit with the surgeon to see how everything is healing.

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!

Home!

We managed to escape out of the hospital on a Saturday!

Last weekend went well. We got sent up to recovery late Friday after waiting half a day to get a PICC line placed in Henry. A few IV lines were pulled, as well as his pacemaker wires. Then up we went to the recovery floor! Starting Saturday night, the nurses started to have problem drawing blood from Henry’s PICC line. So after a few rounds of TPA, we ended up doing an ultrasound on his arm.

It saddens me to report Henry has/had a small clot on the line. Because of this we had to start doing manual blood draws for lab, as well as start a regime of twice a day shots to thin out Henry’s blood. We will need to do this for three months, then have a follow up with hematology.

Honestly I think that set Henry back a few days. He was a pretty hapy camper Monday. We had musical therapy come by, and he was smiling a lot! He was also starting to eat, as well as getting close to his liquid restriction level. It has been a struggle now to do meds, where before we didn’t have problems. Henry also used to do great with blood draws, but after someone tried drawing from his ankle, that really put him over the edge.

So we took it it easy with him on Tuesday. By Wednesday he was still fighting on a few things, but we made it a priorty to have the tv off, and to start using the hospital bed as a napping and bedtime only place, with a couple of exceptions.

By Thursday his drainage was dropping, and the cardiology team decided to pull the drain tubes on Friday. We prepared Henry by providing him some medicine beforehand to help ease the pain, and asked to do lab work as well to get everything done and over with. Our lovenox blood thinner was delivered as well, and we spoke with our Pallaitive Care Nurse, discussing what Henry’s next steps with that team will be. Since the drain tubes came out, we also took Henry off oxygen. He had to be monitored for an hour, and he did great!

We left the hospital before 10. We got home, did some unpacking, ate lunch, and Henry took a nap in his room.

We are all exhausted to say the least. We have 3 diuretics we will be working on to wean off, as well as monitoring Henry’s water intake, being on a low fat diet, and making sure to add some additional sodium to his diet. 

We return back to the hospital Friday, and will do lab work and xrays prior to the doctor visit. We have a visit scheduled with Henry’s cardiologist in July.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and support! It is wonderful to be home.