Musings of a Heart Family: Brandon's Birthday

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Brandon's Birthday

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. School just got out and we are all adjusting to the new schedule. Thursday was Brandon's birthday. Since last year, and to be honest, the past couple of years have not been the best birthdays for Matthew or Brandon, I decided this year to make them extra special.

Brandon's favorite place in the whole world is McDonald's. So we made a homemade cake, grandma brought the balloons and off to McDonald's we went to celebrate my little guy turning 6. The manager saw the balloons and brought him a brownie sundae and had the entire crew sing him "Happy Birthday". How awesome was that???

We had a great time and it was the perfect party. Enjoy the pictures!

Could you ask for sweeter kids?

Making his wish

He wanted a Spiderman cake and he was thrilled with what we came up with.

Enjoying his brownie sundae.

Presents and balloons from Grandma!

1 comment:

Susan said...: It's a great cake! I'm glad Brandon enjoyed himself so much. Please tell him Happy Birthday!; June 9, 2009 at 3:06 AM

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Welcome To Our Page

This page is a place for me to empty the thoughts out of my head when they begin to overflow!

I am mom to 4 boys. Our youngest, Tommy was born with complex congenital heart defects, and cricopharyngeal achalasia (poor swallow). He was medically fragile and required a Gtube to eat, a trach to breathe and oxygen 24/7. I started this blog when he was just an infant, blogging about all of the ups and downs of our family.

Sadly, Tommy passed away in August 2008. His heart went into lethal arrhythmia from undiagnosed bronchopneumonia. Our world was shattered. I continue to blog as we adjust to life without our sweet Angel.

Tommy's Diagnosis

Tommy was born 7 weeks premature with a combination of congenital heart defects and a poor swallow. His heart diagnosis is as follows: Double Inlet Left Ventricle with Transposition of the Great Arteries, Pulmonary Stenosis, Ventricle Septal Defect, and Patent Ductus Ateriosis. This is also known as "single ventricle" or "univentricle". It basically means the blood containing oxygen and the blood without oxygen met in one place in his heart, mixed together, and recirculated. This gave him low oxygen saturation levels in his blood. His poor swallow, also know as dysphagia was caused by Cricopharyngeal Dysfunction. The muscle at the top of his esophagus worked sporadically. It caused Tommy to aspirate his saliva into his lungs. For this reason, Tommy was fed exclusively by a feeding pump. Tommy had open heart surgery at 4 weeks old, and because of his poor swallow, he could not make it off of the ventilator for 5 weeks. He required a procedure called a Tracheotomy to breathe on his own. Because of the breathing tube, he developed a condition called severe subglottic stenosis. This is scar tissue below the vocal cords. He could not breathe without his trach. The aspirations caused another condition called chronic lung disease. His brochial tissues were inflamed causing Pulmonary Hypertenison and asthma. He took a combination of medicines and required oxygen 24 hours a day.

Musings of a Heart Family

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Brandon's Birthday

1 comment:

Diagram of Tommy's Heart Defects

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