Yesterday...Today...Tomorrow

Open heart surgery?!? Wait, what? Doc, I hear you, but I'm not hearing you.

One week ago started the beginning of a whirlwind of emotions, fear and amazing strength I didn't know that I had. My son for weeks had been complaining of stomach pain with vomiting and diarrhea, he had just gotten over the flu but his symptoms just seemed to linger and not get any better. I took him to the ER early last Tuesday morning where after all of their initial tests determined that he had an enlarged heart. We were then transferred to the Children's Hospital Cardiac ICU where they ran a myriad of exams and blood work and determined that Patrick had myocarditis, they started him on meds, but determined shortly afterwards that his heart was so damaged that they could not care for him at their facility. We were then airlifted to Joe Dimaggio's Children's Hospital almost over an hour away from our home.

"Patrick is in the right place", my family assured me. "This is the place for the cardiac specialist to come up with the best plan for him", they exclaimed. But I was frightened; my son was scared and how could something like this happen so fast? It seemed to be something out of the blue, I brought him to the hospital for stomach pain not a damaged heart!

Patrick, my gentle giant, had open heart surgery (LVAD placement) this past Monday. Here at Joe Dimaggio's his official diagnosis is Dilated Cardiac Myopathy. He now has a pump inserted into his heart to help it pump more efficiently. He is a freshman at Christopher Columbus and plays football. He is quite popular and enjoys spending time with family and especially his friends. There are many lifestyle changes and new challenges that await he and I. I will always be by his side and his support team prays for him constantly.

However, this new journey will be hard, different and challenging but we will get through this. I will not be working and Patrick will not be able to attend in-person schooling for the next few months while he recovers.

What does this mean? We will need some help, first of all your prayers and if you are lead to do so your donations. We will need assistance with meds, therapy, medical bills and transportation assistance seeing that we are now so far from home. Patrick may possibly be placed on the heart transplant list due to the excessive damage to his heart. May God lead you in helping out in any way that you see fit.

Thanking you all from the bottom of MY heart.