As some of you know, Oscar's had open heart surgery when he was 5 weeks old due to his heart condition Tetralogy of Fallot. He had a procedure when he was 2 weeks old to help his pulmonary stenosis which failed then at 5 weeks old, he had his first open heart surgery. Unfortunately, he was not out of the woods yet because 2 days later on Easter morning, he was going through organ failure and was blowing up like a balloon. He was put on ECMO to help clean his blood and take the load off his organs. 4 days in total he was on ECMO and, I’m glad the doctors told me this years later, babies that are on ECMO or than 2-3 days usually don’t make it. After 6 weeks in total being in the hospital, the night that Price passed was our last night at Children’s. He had lots of therapy to help recover and catch up to his average weight.

He’s had many other surgeries for his ears, tonsils and put under for MRIs and a sleep study.

We thought he would be in the clear when he had his apt this year, but he had such a big growth spurt, it stretched out all the work the doctors did on his heart as a baby. So, he had a sedated MRI to see how bad the damage was and if they could put off his surgery. Unfortunately, we got the news no parent wants to hear, open heart surgery again this fall. We knew this was coming but in the hopes he would be older. So, after talking with his cardiologist, we all come to an agreement to have his surgery on July 21st of this year so while he heals, he’s not in school around other people and run the chance of him getting sick. Hopefully his chest will be healed enough when he’s back at school, he can run and have fun with his friends.

During this time of his surgery, Benny, his dad, and I are taking 6 weeks off to help him recover and heal at home being able to attend him around the clock. Again, another string of bad luck, we do not qualify for short term disability because we are not the ones who got hurt even if we are the caregivers, it doesn’t count. So, we are in need of help paying bills and basic needs while we are out of work. We have 4 children, Lucy (15), Jack (9), Oscar (7) and Beckett (5). This is all new for Beckett and he will have to learn to be gentle with Oscar, but this is all a repeat for the other children.

We are hoping and praying for a speedy recovery and successful surgery. We ask to hope and pray for Oscar to come out of the hospital and recover quickly.

Thank you everyone for your help.