Updates: 04.27.2011

Team Caleb we need your prayers. The hospital called and has decided to do surgery now to close the PDA. This is scary with him on ECMO bc of the risk or bleeding from the blood thinners. Also they have to leave his chest open for 24-48 hours after surgery and this runs the risk of infection. Please pray that everything goes well and there are no complications.




10 am: Everything went well with the surgery today and the doctors said Calebs lungs never looked better. They did a trial today of taking him off the ECMO and he did well so the doctors are now in the process of removing the canulas from his neck and Caleb will be ECMO free....GREAT NEWS! ♥♥♥


Change of plans. Cardiac surgeons had an emergency surgery come up so taking him off of ECMO will have to wait until tomorrow.

Updates: 04.26.2011

So today was another step forward for Caleb. The breathing treatments are slowly working so they are doing them every 8 hours. We talked to the Cardiologist today and he was talking about "when Caleb goes home". This brought such joy to my heart and are the best words I have ever heard. They are still waiting for his ductus arteriosus (PDA) to close. Once they get his lungs better they will wean him off of ECMO and will soon be deciding what to do about the PDA. If it doesn't close soon they will have to do surgery to close it. We are meeting with the cardiologists and neonatologists on Thursday afternoon to go over what the next steps are to get him healthy enough to go home. 

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers. We will never be able to thank you all enough! They are working!

Updates: 04.25.2011

1 pm: "Caleb is getting a breathing treatment right now. They need to get his lungs to open up more. His heart can handle being off of ECMO but not his lungs.

This treatment can cause bleeding in the lungs though.

Please pray that 1)the treatment works so he can get off of ECMO and 2) it does not cause any bleeding.

Also he smiled at us today :-) and is making a ton of faces at us. I am so glad to have gotten to see these things.

Thank you all for your continued support!"

5:30 pm: So the 1st treatment went well. They are doing an x-ray tonight to see if the treatment helped him to expand his lungs any. Then they were planning on doing another treatment tonight. So pray that this treatment worked and the xray shows improvement in his lung expansion and that the next treatment causes no bleeding. Thank you so much!! 

♥ Team Caleb ♥

Updates: 04.24.2011

HAPPY FIRST EASTER CALEB!  

From Caleb's mommy


I wanted to put a separate post up to just say thank you so much for all of the love we receive every day here. There is no way I can keep up with it all and respond to everyone because there are so many people posting (which is an amazing thing!), but I do see all of them and just love them all so much. They don't go unnoticed. We are so appreciative and are so blessed to have so many people pulling for him..even complete strangers.


Also I have had a couple of people ask me just out of curiosity so I wanted to address it. Some of the more recent photos of Caleb you can see that his head is "misshapen". This is because his head is always in one spot because of the ECMO machine (the cannulas are in his neck in the arteries there), but the doctors said that because his skull has not begun to fuse, everything will go back to normal once he is off of ECMO and able to move his head around more.


Evening Update:  "No changes to update today. They tried turning down the ECMO some and he didn't handle it well so they turned it back up and they are just letting him rest."

Updates: 04.23.2011

April 23 at 10:15pm "We spent the majority of the day at the hospital today. Caleb was having a "rest day" today. When they took him off of ECMO yesterday for the trial hour, he ended up having some bleeding into his lungs which put him a couple of steps back. They were letting him rest and get his strength today and will try another trial tomorrow or Monday. They are just trying to figure out the next steps to take to get him off of ECMO and go from there. It's a "trial" thing really. They let Caleb lead the way and do whats best for him. He is still strong and fighting, but still very sick. Please keep praying and asking God to watch over our sweet baby boy.

Thank you so so much to you all for all of your love and support. There is no way we could ever repay any of you for all that you have done for Caleb. Thank you thank you thank you." (from Sarah, Caleb's Mommy)

Updates: 04.22.2011

Morning: "Okay change of plans. They did another echo on his heart this morning and saw improvement and his numbers improved over night so they turned the ecmo machine down. They are postponing the surgery until he is off of ecmo bc they would rather him be off of that for surgery."

Mommy was discharged from the hospital today.

Look who opened his eyes for the first time since surgery!!!

Updates: 04.21.2011

Caleb's mommy was told tonight that Caleb will be having the hybrid procedure done in the morning.   Please keep praying ♥TEAM CALEB♥

More information will be posted as it becomes available. 

To keep up to date with the instant updates, please make sure you've added the Facebook page linked on the sidebar there.  

Thank you so much for all the love and support

Caleb, we're all praying for you & your family!  

Updates: 04.20.2011

12 pm: Good afternoon ♥TEAM CALEB♥ -- Scott's on his way to Sarah with some "good news" so we should have an amazing update soon!! Remember to keep sharing the page with your friends & family. God does amazing things and there's so much power in prayer!! 


 1 pm: "They saw significant improvement in his heart and they are starting to wean him off ECMO!!!" GO CALEB!! :D ♥TEAM CALEB♥


8 pm: Caleb will not actually start weaning off of ECMO yet, because his lactates aren't at the perfect number to start, but he's still doing well and Mommy's going to get some rest now. Keep praying & thank you for all the support for the George family! ♥TEAM CALEB♥

Updates: 04.19.2011

12:00am: Caleb is on the ECMO machine, has acid in his blood, and will be having the cath and probably the hybrid procedure done in the morning to see if his left ventricle is any better.

Sarah's doing well recovering in her room and will get to see him in the morning.


12:30 pm:  Caleb just got back from his procedure and the doctor said it went great. Caleb's heart responded well and they already saw shrinkage of the left side. They are going to monitor his aorta to watch for any shrinkage and probably start to wean him off of the ecmo machine tomorrow.


4:30 pm: Sarah just talked with Caleb's nurse and is asking ♥TEAM CALEB♥ for extra prayers, please. He is having a hard time maintaining his blood pressure so they're having to give him lots of blood products which is causing him to swell. Pray! Pray! Pray! C'mon Caleb, let's get that BP stabilizing!! ♥   Results from the ultrasound of Caleb's brain should be in later tonight.

10:30 pm: Last update for tonight :) Mommy & Daddy visited Caleb and his blood pressure is back up and doing better. They met with the neonatologist and there is no hydrocephalus! From what he could tell from the report Caleb is missing the Corpus Callosum in his brain. This shouldn't affect him too much, according to the doc. Sleep well, and keep praying 


♥TEAM CALEB♥

     

Happy Birthday, Caleb!!!

For those of you not on Facebook, from a post from a member of Team Caleb (Amy):

"Caleb George has arrived at 6lbs 4oz. Grandma says he has beautiful coloring and skin and looks great! They have put in a breathing tube for precaution and baby and dad are on their way next door to the childrens hospital. Sarah did great and should be in recovery soon. Our first hurdle is down and it goes to show that prayers can be answered!!! Let's keep them coming!! ♥ Team Caleb ♥"

and from Caleb's dad, Scott:

"Caleb George is here. He came at 8:49 pm 6 lbs 4 oz and now is with the wonderful hands at Rady's children hospital. Pray everything goes well."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BABY CALEB & CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GEORGE FAMILY!

Sarah recently updated they will be doing the echo on him tonight and possibly the ultrasound of his brain.


Isn't he just BEAUTIFUL??? *swoon*

Keep praying!! 

♥Team Caleb♥

Updates: 04.18.2011

The George Family just left the surgeons and are going back to labor and delivery to have Sarah's blood pressure monitored and possibly be admitted. The echo will be done around 3:30 and I'll update as I get more information. 


EDIT @630 pm:  Sarah's being admitted with contractions 3 minutes apart.

Keep praying!

♥TEAM CALEB♥

Appointments this week

This week the George family will be meeting with the Cardiologist, Neurologist, and Perinatologist to discuss course of action.  Monday is Card, Tuesday is Neuro, Wednesday is Peri.   Please keep them in your prayers and remember to spread the word about Team Caleb.   There's power in prayer and the family can use all the support they can get.  We appreciate all of you taking the time to come by and to read Caleb's story and to follow as he's going to soon make his big arrival.   Love and support will help the family so much through all this. If you have any questions or just want to leave some well wishes you can do so here (you don't need a blogspot account to comment) or on the Facebook page.

♥TEAM CALEB♥

Welcome

I'd like to thank you all for stopping by Team Caleb's page.   Baby Caleb will be arriving any day now and I know there's many of us who would like to keep up with him and most importantly pray for him.   His family is going to be very busy with his care & bonding so updates will be posted here and on his Facebook page.  His family can use all the prayers they can get right now, so please pass on this page to all your friends!

I've offered to help Sarah, Caleb's Mommy, with keeping up with this and the Facebook page while they're focusing on his care.   We've set up a separate email address and paypal donations will go directly to the George family.   There's a button on the sidebar if you'd like to donate anything, as we all know how hospital costs and all the extras can add up SO fast!   Anything donated goes direct to them.    If you have any questions, you can also email teamcalebgeorge@gmail.com.   

Thank you so much for your support!!  

♥TEAM CALEB♥