Kathleen's little David update, and pictures

[Dan Murphy]

Next week is another week of surgery for little David, please keep him, Kathleen and Norm in your prayers. Here is a link with a few recent threads about little David, to catch up those who may not be aware of his condition. http://www.disboards.com/search.php...d=543597&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

And here are a few pictures from the past few weeks..........


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Cuddling with Mommy in the recovery room after my catheterization.

Me and my new puppy Tucker - back in my room after my catheterization.

Daddy, me, and my yucky oxygen tank, getting ready to go down to Radiology for a chest x-ray.

Daddy feeding me back in my room after my catheterization.

Me with my Boppy pillow!

All ready to go home after my hospital stay!

My first time wearing sneakers like a big boy! These are the first present my Daddy ever bought me, he bought them when I was first in my Mommy's belly!

Me in my big boy sneakers again!

Hanging out, watching the Millionaire show on t.v.....I'm practicing so I can be on the show some day!
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And an update............

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Tomorrow is David's Pre-Op appointment in Boston. It begins at 8:30 a.m., and will last until late afternoon. He will have all the usual tests - bloodwork, EKG, Chest X-ray, etc. We will have meetings with his surgeon, anesthesiologists, etc. If everything looks okay, we will come home for the weekend to pack, and then will go back on Monday at 6:30 a.m. for surgery.

This surgery will be to clamp off a nest of collateral vessels to stop blood from going through them. They were not able to coil them off in his catheterization (they were too short and too intertwined together), so that is why he needs this unexpected surgery - to take care of those in a different way - with a clamp, and surgically (rather than during a catheterization).

Just to explain collaterals again quickly -- Before David was born, his body realized it was missing connections between important areas of his heart and lungs - so it compensated for that by growing these collaterals to allow the blood to go where it needed to, until he could be born and until his heart got fixed. But now that they have fixed some of his heart, put in his conduit, etc., and the blood is mostly getting where it needs to go the "correct" way, these collaterals have to be closed off. They are now just letting excess blood through and too much blood is going to certain areas.

The only little glitch might be that David has been fighting off an eye infection and diarrhea, and sometimes they can't do a surgery when there have been infections going on. But his doctors are aware of these two issues, and the tests tomorrow will tell them whether doing surgery Monday will be safe or not. They are pretty sure that it won't be a problem though.

David's latest weight is 11 pounds, 10 ounces.

Please keep David in your thoughts over the weekend, and especially Monday and throughout next week. We really appreciate all the good wishes for him. Thank you.

Please do remember David in your good thoughts, along with ALL the DIS'ers, and their famlies and friends who are aching from one thing or another, physical, mental, or what-have-you. 's to all.

Dan

 

[vald1977]

Little David will be remembered in my prayers.

 

[DisneyObsessed]

May God bless him and all of you, Dan.

 

[tkyes]

he sure is a cutie

all my best to the whole family. Thanks for keeping us updated with this Dan.


Tamie

 

[Hillbeans]

God Bless that beautiful little baby.

 

[KristaTX]

Dan - I was going to go read some of the other threads, but I don't think the link is correct.

 

[TinkHappy]

Thank you for posting these pictures...David is such a beautiful baby. He has beautiful eyes full of expression. I will absolutely keep him in my prayers.

 

[Big V]

I will keep little baby David in my prayers.

 

[skuttle]

Thanks so much, Dan.

David is such a strong little boy. And a cutie, too!

 

[gdulaney]

We'll keep David in our prayers!
Ginny & Andy

 

[lynxstch]

for such a beautiful little boy..May God bless him and watch over him during this operation..all of our prayers and best wishes that everything goes smoothly and that he's soon on the road to a full recovery
Lynn

 

[always quiet]

Sending prayer and pixie dust to a precious little angel and his mommy and daddy!! He is just SO CUTE!! Love those big boy sneakers!!

 

[GEM]

We keep little David and his mommy and daddy in our thoughts all the time. Paul is sending lots of pixie dust his way!!

 

[Dopeygirl]

Thanks for the update, Dan. What a cutie! My thoughts will be with them as they go through another surgery.

How old is he now?

 

[Disneyland_emily]

sending happy thoughts and wishes Davids way!

 

[Rutt and Tuke]

Originally posted by skporter
Dan - I was going to go read some of the other threads, but I don't think the link is correct.

Me, too.

I said a little prayer for successful surgery.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hopefully this link is correct. The other seems to work for me, but maybe this is better, I took out one search parameter.

http://www.disboards.com/search.php...d=543597&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

 

[kathleen]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful messages. We really appreciate your thoughts and good wishes, and prayers. I think someone asked David's age - he is a little over 5 months now. He weighs 11 pounds, 5.5 ounces as of today. At birth he was a month premature, weighing 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

He had his first open-heart surgery in December, then a cardiac cath in mid-February. This next surgery on Monday will hopefully go well. After that he will need several more surgeries and many more caths. His main heart defect is Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia, but he also has a lot of other smaller things going on with his heart too, so they can't treat the TOF/PA like they normally would in other cases.

He also has DiGeorge Syndrome, which is a genetic disorder like the more well-known Down Syndrome.

Again, thank you all very much. Most of you don't know/remember me, but a few years ago I was a regular on the DIS, posting many times each day - so even though I'm not here much anymore, the DIS has a very special place in my heart!

Thanks again to Dan, for posting these threads. You're the best Dan!

 

[helenabear]

Thanks for the update, Dan... my prayers are with them all.