Traveling Bills for birth of Radleigh

tomorrow Rad has his first open heart surgery, it is a very risky surgery with some serious risk that could happen.. it will be his first of several but this one could allow him to at least (hopefully) come home until the next.. he will go in at 9a.m tomorrow, and I am a wreck over it. James has truly been my back bone between an almost 60 hour labor, not getting to hardly see Rad before he was taken, and driving several hundred miles back and forth in between everything trying to be home for the other children as well. At this time it is just financially to hard to continue to travel, so we will be staying the next couple weeks here, if our finances allow us to do so, Rad needs us here with him, and mentally we need to be here with him.

Rad has absolutely no pulmonary valve, he was completely born without it, but is to small to have it repaired right now, tomorrow they will be placing a 3.5mm shunt from his aorta, to where the pulmonary valve should be to continue to hold the ductis where the pulmonary should pump to open (as it is being held open with medication right now that causes him to have apnea and him not be able to breathe on his on) due to him not getting any blood supply to his lungs, which this shunt placement will allow him to finally receive and blood to his lungs, and hopefully get him off the ventilator. If everything goes as planned with this surgery, we could be home within the next 2-4 weeks, they feel more comfortable not giving a solid estimate due to anything being able to turn at any point in time.

Once he is off the ventilator the plan is to get him feeding, as he is not getting any breast milk or anything at this time, other than fats and sugars that are given to him through a pikline in his belly button.

He will have to cross all these milestones before being able to come home, we still have a very long road to go.

He will undergo another procedure (preferred) when he is around 15-20 pounds to place a prosthetic pulmonary valve, and go from there.

I am praying so hard that tomorrow goes as we need it too, I am so ready to hold my baby, it has only been 4 days, but it feels like it has been a very miserable life time not being able to bond with him immediately.

Many thanks, and love to all.