Aidan, 9 was born with a congenital heart condition called Tetrology of Fallot, TOF for short, 3 years later his 2nd little brother was born with the same condition.
When Aidan was a month old he quit breathing and was admitted to Driscoll Childrens hospital in Corpus Christi, Tx. They found nothing wrong with him and sent him home. 2 months later he quit breathing again and a pediatric cardiologist was called in. He did tests and chose to do a heart catheter, which did not work, so open heart surgery was done the next day, to minimize the damage to his heart. At 8 months old he had a catheter and 2 stents placed. Since then he has had 4 heart catheters, to balloon the stents. Last year he had a bacterial infection that attcked his heart and mouth, which resulted in having 9 teeth removed, and then a heart catheter and another stent placed.
At that point the cardiologists hoped to get him to the age of 13 before he would need another surgery.
On December 18, 2015 he went for a check up.
He had yet another heart catheter, to replace his own pulmonary valve with a "melody valve", on February 23, 2016 @Rush Hospital in Chicago. Which would have given him a few more years before they needed to do a full valve replacement. But, at this point the right side of Aidans heart is dialated and not doing enough work, which causes him to get tired very easily, have blue spells and difficulty breathing, and trouble focusing or learning new things. This also meant they could not risk placing the new experimental valve at this time. All they were able to do was balloon the existing stent. They have now scheduled Aidan for his 2nd open heart surgery on May 17, 2016. We are expecting to spend about a month in the hosital. This means, time away from home, unable to do cakes. Dad, and step dad taking off of work. Sending his brothers to Michigan to stay with family, paying someone to watch our animals, and paying for food, gas and lodging an hour and a half from home, for however long he is there, on top of our portion of the surgery, and our normal household bills.
Because of his condition and all of the time spent in and out of hospitals, his immune system has been severely compromised and he gets sick very easily, so he and his brothers are homeschooled to minimize the risk of infection. This means we only have one income because I stay at home to care for and school them. I am babysitting on the side, and making cakes and baked goods to help cover all of our costs, but its slow going.
If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask, we are an open book. www.facebook.com/jjscakecreations
When Aidan was a month old he quit breathing and was admitted to Driscoll Childrens hospital in Corpus Christi, Tx. They found nothing wrong with him and sent him home. 2 months later he quit breathing again and a pediatric cardiologist was called in. He did tests and chose to do a heart catheter, which did not work, so open heart surgery was done the next day, to minimize the damage to his heart. At 8 months old he had a catheter and 2 stents placed. Since then he has had 4 heart catheters, to balloon the stents. Last year he had a bacterial infection that attcked his heart and mouth, which resulted in having 9 teeth removed, and then a heart catheter and another stent placed.
At that point the cardiologists hoped to get him to the age of 13 before he would need another surgery.
On December 18, 2015 he went for a check up.
He had yet another heart catheter, to replace his own pulmonary valve with a "melody valve", on February 23, 2016 @Rush Hospital in Chicago. Which would have given him a few more years before they needed to do a full valve replacement. But, at this point the right side of Aidans heart is dialated and not doing enough work, which causes him to get tired very easily, have blue spells and difficulty breathing, and trouble focusing or learning new things. This also meant they could not risk placing the new experimental valve at this time. All they were able to do was balloon the existing stent. They have now scheduled Aidan for his 2nd open heart surgery on May 17, 2016. We are expecting to spend about a month in the hosital. This means, time away from home, unable to do cakes. Dad, and step dad taking off of work. Sending his brothers to Michigan to stay with family, paying someone to watch our animals, and paying for food, gas and lodging an hour and a half from home, for however long he is there, on top of our portion of the surgery, and our normal household bills.
Because of his condition and all of the time spent in and out of hospitals, his immune system has been severely compromised and he gets sick very easily, so he and his brothers are homeschooled to minimize the risk of infection. This means we only have one income because I stay at home to care for and school them. I am babysitting on the side, and making cakes and baked goods to help cover all of our costs, but its slow going.
If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask, we are an open book. www.facebook.com/jjscakecreations