I am a total newbie to all this and I have been reading a lot of the threads and have cried and laughed my way through a ton of them. So I will introduce my cast of characters:
Mandi (me, 28)
Carter (wish kid, 7...soon to be 8 on 3/21)
Doug (dad, 28)
I want to start from the beginning so you all can be aware why my DS is elegible for this magical and gracious gift to go to WDW.
My pregnancy from the beginning was typical to what most women go through, a little morning sickness and that subsided by only eating pickles..lol It wasn't until about my 4th month that Carter was trying to make his enterance into this world all too soon. Doctors put me on bed rest and medication to stop the early contractions. This continued and so did the ultrasounds to check what was going on. Well it ended up that on March 21, 2003 the morning of an appointment that the contactions were hard and coming sooner. He was going to be early and the Dr said that we should just deliver and take what we can day by day. Carter was born almost a month early and came out blue. He didn't cry. I kept begging 'cry Carter cry'. He eventually whined a bit but nothing loud. He was given the ok, but I still felt like something was wrong. We went home 3 days later.
At his 2 week check-up the peditrician heard a very loud murmur, he was very concerned that this wasn't heard at the hospital but insisted that we go see a cardiologist that afternoon. I was frantic and scared. What was going on with my sons heart? So we got our papers and drove to Dayton Children's Hospital about 15 min away. They ran almost every test that they could and confirmed that he did have an issue with his heart. Dr. Joseph Ross said Carter had a CHD (congenital heart defect) and was diagnosed with TOF (Tetrology of Fallot) He had two holes in his heart and a narrow aortic and issues with his mitral valve. I about fell to the floor. They said he'd about one when they would do the surgery to repair the holes and allow him to gain some weight. How were we going to wait day in and day out for almost a year for that to happen, didn't he need this now? So we took our baby home and cried and prayed. A few weeks later we had him baptized at this lovely baptism pool in Lebanon. Gathered by family and friends, we just felt it was the right timing and knew it needed to be done before anything were to happen.
Carter was almost 7 weeks old when his color never improved after I nursed him. He turned purple and almost fell asleep as soon as he was done crying or nursing. I called Dr. Ross and he said to come in right away. We took him in and they said it was a good thing we came because he may not of survived the night. His oxygen got to 13% and was not allowed to be stimulated so we were not allowed to hold him, touch him.. He was given oxygen and was to be transported to Children's Hospital in Cincinnati the next morning. We arrived at Children's and were quickly taken to the NICU where they hooked him up to IV's and monitored his oxygen. He underwent a 8 hr open heart surgery and came out broken and swollen. My poor baby laying there and I was not allowed to hold him, to soothe him or love on him. During the surgery a complication occured and a temporary pacemaker was put in. A week later he had a permanate one was placed. I was finally allowed to hold him and love on him. During the hospital stay he contacted an infection in his bloodstream and EVERYONE was scared it would compromise his recovery. Our family and friends did a prayer around him and the next day there was not a single trace that any infection had ever exsisted. We got to go home a few days later. He spent almost a month in Cincinnati and thank God for the miracle hands of his surgeon. Since then Carter has had his mitral valve repaired and also a SECOND pacemaker put in. He knows he's different but he also knows he's special. He calls himself bionic boy. We taught him "Chicks dig scars" and we are thankful for the scars that he is still here with us everyday.
Now that I have cried myself through this I will move on and look toward the bright side of this scary story. We are going to DISNEY! Our first family vacation without anyone else.. On our own, ooohh FUN!!
Mandi (me, 28)
Carter (wish kid, 7...soon to be 8 on 3/21)
Doug (dad, 28)
I want to start from the beginning so you all can be aware why my DS is elegible for this magical and gracious gift to go to WDW.
My pregnancy from the beginning was typical to what most women go through, a little morning sickness and that subsided by only eating pickles..lol It wasn't until about my 4th month that Carter was trying to make his enterance into this world all too soon. Doctors put me on bed rest and medication to stop the early contractions. This continued and so did the ultrasounds to check what was going on. Well it ended up that on March 21, 2003 the morning of an appointment that the contactions were hard and coming sooner. He was going to be early and the Dr said that we should just deliver and take what we can day by day. Carter was born almost a month early and came out blue. He didn't cry. I kept begging 'cry Carter cry'. He eventually whined a bit but nothing loud. He was given the ok, but I still felt like something was wrong. We went home 3 days later.
At his 2 week check-up the peditrician heard a very loud murmur, he was very concerned that this wasn't heard at the hospital but insisted that we go see a cardiologist that afternoon. I was frantic and scared. What was going on with my sons heart? So we got our papers and drove to Dayton Children's Hospital about 15 min away. They ran almost every test that they could and confirmed that he did have an issue with his heart. Dr. Joseph Ross said Carter had a CHD (congenital heart defect) and was diagnosed with TOF (Tetrology of Fallot) He had two holes in his heart and a narrow aortic and issues with his mitral valve. I about fell to the floor. They said he'd about one when they would do the surgery to repair the holes and allow him to gain some weight. How were we going to wait day in and day out for almost a year for that to happen, didn't he need this now? So we took our baby home and cried and prayed. A few weeks later we had him baptized at this lovely baptism pool in Lebanon. Gathered by family and friends, we just felt it was the right timing and knew it needed to be done before anything were to happen.
Carter was almost 7 weeks old when his color never improved after I nursed him. He turned purple and almost fell asleep as soon as he was done crying or nursing. I called Dr. Ross and he said to come in right away. We took him in and they said it was a good thing we came because he may not of survived the night. His oxygen got to 13% and was not allowed to be stimulated so we were not allowed to hold him, touch him.. He was given oxygen and was to be transported to Children's Hospital in Cincinnati the next morning. We arrived at Children's and were quickly taken to the NICU where they hooked him up to IV's and monitored his oxygen. He underwent a 8 hr open heart surgery and came out broken and swollen. My poor baby laying there and I was not allowed to hold him, to soothe him or love on him. During the surgery a complication occured and a temporary pacemaker was put in. A week later he had a permanate one was placed. I was finally allowed to hold him and love on him. During the hospital stay he contacted an infection in his bloodstream and EVERYONE was scared it would compromise his recovery. Our family and friends did a prayer around him and the next day there was not a single trace that any infection had ever exsisted. We got to go home a few days later. He spent almost a month in Cincinnati and thank God for the miracle hands of his surgeon. Since then Carter has had his mitral valve repaired and also a SECOND pacemaker put in. He knows he's different but he also knows he's special. He calls himself bionic boy. We taught him "Chicks dig scars" and we are thankful for the scars that he is still here with us everyday.
Now that I have cried myself through this I will move on and look toward the bright side of this scary story. We are going to DISNEY! Our first family vacation without anyone else.. On our own, ooohh FUN!!
I am so happy he is getting his wish! 
There is LOTS of knowledge on that board. Praying you have a great day! 
