One week and counting

It is one week until Tate's surgery and I am counting down the days. I am trying and praying for Tate to be healthy so nothing will postpone his surgery. He has had a bad cough the past few days which is normal for him when the weather starts getting cooler. I am trying my best to keep him at home and limit his activities to school and some church. I am SO ready to get this over with. Pray for strength for me these last few days, I am very sad for my Tate. I can't really explain how I feel so I'm not going to try too.
This week is very busy trying to get things in order. Thanks to all my friends and family who are helping us out so much, I am very grateful for you all.
We will be talking to Tate about the surgery this weekend. He has videos to watch and books to look at. We also are having a party for him on Monday night before his big day. If you want info regarding his party just get in touch with me and I will give you specifics.

Want to put a plug in for my boys. I have all four here today. Seth and Cole are fighting over a Backyardigans guitar. In between the yells they stop and dance. They are so cute. I love watching them get more independence. Tate is spider man and Caden is Batman. My superheros!!!!! It is so neat to see how much they love each other.

I want to shout out to my friend Amy May whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday Maymer!!! I love you.

I will be posting more later.

P.S. On a side note, to those of you who will be spending next Tuesday with us at the hospital, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE! You can vote early if you don't want to have to worry with it next Tuesday.

Wild and Crazy Weekend

Well, JP and I learned a big lesson this weekend. Don't do two events with kids on the same day. On Saturday we went to the Air Force Base to see the Air Show. It was great even though we didn't get to see the Blue Angels. Tate seemed to enjoy himself and Seth did great. JP loved the F16's which all the kids thought was way too loud. Then we did a mad dash home to get ready to go to the State Fair. What fun!!! Tate loved the rides and all the animals and of course I loved the food. Seth stayed at home with Mima. We had a great time but we were all exhausted. It is amazing how your son having surgery can put a different perspective in view. I seem to appreciate things more and want to do family outings more often. What is sad is that I should always be that way. We only have our children for a short time so we shouldn't be taking these precious moments for granted.

Maybe we shouldn't of told him

Well, Tate doesn't seem to be dealing with his surgery very well right now. He has said some very sad things which makes me sad as well. Yesterday he told me that since he didn't have to get his flu shot (he was sick that day so he couldn't get it) that he didn't want to get his boo boo again either. He refers to his scar as his boo boo. He says that he doesn't want his boo boo to bleed. I just said I don't want him to get to have a boo boo either but that we have to make his heart better. When we went to his pediatrician the other day he suggested that Dr. Holmes will fix his heart for him. I wish she could. So it seems that he has this dread, sadness that he somewhat knows what lies again. (For those of you who don't know Tate well he has been to the doctor so much and had so many things done that he is scared of needles and basically anything you get near him.) So I have many anxieties along with him. I just hope that I can give him comfort and strength when the time comes. His reaction to the IV in his foot a few weeks ago has me very scared. Pray for us.

Tate's 2nd surgery

Well, here it is 3 years later and the doctors have called us in again to do surgery on Tate. We went for his annual cardio checkup and his echo showed that the monocupst (sp?) valve they put in Tate's heart during his first surgery has stopped working, there is some leakage and his right ventricle is enlarging to compensate. So they have decided to bring Tate in and put in a pulmonary valve. I don't know the specifics about the surgery but it is scheduled for November 4, 2008. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, especially Tate. I feel better going into this surgery then I did before but it is still extremely hard. I can't even describe it. I will keep posting updates and everyday life here at the Patterson household.

Tate's 1st surgery

In September 2005, Tate had surgery to repair his defect. He was 5 1/2 months old. The doctors originally told me that he would at least be a year old before they would do the repair so needless to say when they gave me 3 weeks notice about his surgery I was a basketcase. But they wanted to get it done before RSV season and since he seemed to be doing really well they wanted to get it over with. He was in the hospital for 6 days and did remarkably well. He was such a trooper. We had lots of family and friends visit which was a huge blessing. He has continued to do well and had grown up to be such an amazing child.

My little man Tate

Tate was born in April, 2005. It was a pretty uneventfull pregnancy which was good. It never once crossed my mind that something could possibly be wrong with my little man. I still had the mindset that nothing bad was ever going to happen to me, I guess I hadn't crossed the threshold into adulthood were bad things are unavoidable and those who love God aren't without exemption. So there I was, just given birth to what I thought was a huge baby (I couldn't believe that person had just come out of me) watching the nurses look him over when I notice something strange. The two nurses that were checking him out kept taking turns listening to his heart. I thought huh, how many times does one need to do that. One of the nurses walks over to me and tells me that they would like to take Tate down to the nursery and have him checked out by one of the pediatric doctors. I guess I knew then that something was wrong.
The doctor came back to tell me that something was wrong with Tate's heart. He kept saying heart disease which made no sense to me but then it seemed like all things were a vacuum and I couldn't process what was going on. So they took Tate to Children's Hospital. Jason went with him as well as most of the family. A doctor from Children's called me a few hours later to tell me what they had found. Tate was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with Absent Pulmonary Valve. I just remember asking him "Is it fixable?" and he said yes. Tate spent his first week of life in the hospital and got to come home on my birthday. I can't even describe that week, I still tear up thinking about it. I don't think I have ever felt such brokenness, such devastation. But I do know it was the best birthday present ever.

Getting started

Well, I guess I will start by saying a few things about myself and my pack. Jason and I have been married since 2001 and we have two adorable boys. Tate who is 3 and Seth who is 10 months. I am a stay at home mom and loving every minute of it. I have lots of friends who blog so I thought I would give it a try but I also wanted somewhere I could keep people undated on Tate. I guess I will do that now.