It’s Wednesday July 3, 2013 and today is our latest scheduled date for Hudsons surgery. We are a bit anxious to say the least since we have already been bumped twice and we are frequently hearing other parents at the House saying beds and nurses are not available. Nonetheless, we follow the instructions that are […]
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Hudson was unable to have his surgery on Thursday or Friday and we never received a call before the weekend, so we assumed that it wasn’t going to happen before the Wednesday they had tentatively scheduled us for after the second cancellation. So we made the most of the long weekend. On Saturday, we were […] Today was the supposed to be the big day. Hudson was scheduled to have his surgery at 12:30pm MDT and we were super ready. I had given him the required 2 anti-bacterial baths the night before with the surgical soap they provided and a 3rd bath this morning before leaving. I fed breakfast to the […] We arrived at hospital at 7:00am to start his series of appointments. We didn’t finish until 7hrs later but Hudson was the most amazing trooper. I have never seen him sooo well behaved and never have I ever seen him cooperate with the doctors and nurses as much as he did today. He did ask […] We arrived at the Ronald McDonald house late Monday, around 10:30 pm which was amazing timing, considering we were travelling with 3 little kids. Chris was cranking up the accelerator and only allowed us to have washroom breaks and one longer break for kids to play at a playground for a bit and even that […] WOW! It has been about 2 busy years since I was able to sit down and write about anything, but at same time when people say, “No news is good news” that’s exactly how it has been. Lots of growth has happened with the 3 kids in those past 2 years and it amazes me […] Wow, I cannot believe it has been a year since I sat down to write about our life with Hudson, Hayden and Hayley. I feel so bad for not doing this sooner, because now I feel like I almost forgot some very important things that should have been written down. Well I guess it’s true […] Well, it’s been too long since I was able to sit down and write about anything, as strange as this might be, the only time I have to sit is when I am at the hospital with Hudson for something. I guess it’s because I only have Hudson to deal with and not two other […] On November 11, we asked the cardiologist if it would be possible to take Hudson out on Sunday to dedicate him at our church. He said, if Hudson continues to do well and gets off his IV medication, he didn’t see why not! On November 14, 2010, we dedicated him at the Maple Ridge Alliance […] From Chris: It’s been a while since we last posted. We hadn’t even posted about bringing Hudson back home but most of our friends and family either heard from us directly or through Facebook. We had enjoyed all the time we had with Hudson at home and I had been busy trying to fit back […] Where do I begin, I have been wanting to sit down and write something for so long, but the days all of a sudden disappear and by the time we get to bed I am exhausted and not sure why besides the mix of emotions that go with each day. Our days consist of being […] Yes, being the geek I am, I’ve been looking for a cheap ECG solution for home. Something we can quickly build and use to monitor Hudson’s heart rhythm. Some have asked, “why don’t you use a stethoscope?” and the answer is that we really don’t have the trained ear for it (yet). We have learned […] For a few days now, the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) team has been trying to get Hudson to move up to the ICE Room (Intermediate Care Environment). Yesterday, a room was finally available! One step closer to getting back home… We weren’t in a rush to get up to the ICE room because he […] Gabby and I were just talking and saying we should post something. For the past 48-60 hours Hudson has been fairly stable, but still quite weak. They decided to add a drug called Digoxin “to help the heart ‘squeeze’ more efficiently”. About 3 hours later after his second dose for the day (2x a day), […] This weekend has been extremely rough emotionally and physically for me but more so for Hudson. On Friday night, Gabby flew home to get Hayden and Hayley and is flying back now as we speak on Sunday night. I went for the usually daily on Saturday morning at 9am to hear what the team had […] Well, the day has finally come and we are sitting in the waiting room waiting for his cath to finish, but we sill have another 3hrs to go. Well they said minimun it will take about 3hrs. So typing away as somewhat of a distraction. We have been waiting for this day to finally get […] Today has been a big day for Hudson in the sense that he’s been bugged a lot. They are currently putting in a central venus line which is also going to be used for the Cath they plan to do to figure out what will need to be done surgically for him. I had to […] So we are now back in Edmonton and it seems like it all happened in the blink of an eye. Hudson and I were flown here via Air Ambulance yesterday morning and arrived in Edmonton around 4’ish. They stabilized him quickly and he is doing much better, still continues to have the irregular heartbeats, […] Quick Update. Gabby and Hudson flew off to Edmonton around noon today. I came home, packed up a few things and am heading to the airport. Hayden/Hayley’s grandparents and tia will watch them for a while till we know more out in Edmonton. basically, they could not do anything more here in Vancouver. Unsure what […] Instead of watching for meteorites and northern lights tonight, I’ll be listening to the poor screaming boy next door and gazing at florescent lights for the evening… Hudson has to stay another night. I knew he’d be here another night when I got to the hospital at around 6pm tonight and was watching his monitor […] Yesterday we had a chat with the team and they want to monitor Hudson for another 48 hours. I was with him last night and he did well. He slept through the night except when he was hungry at 3am. His sats were between 70 and low 80’s with the occasional dip into the high […] Hudson has been moved from ICU (PICU) to the ward (3M Unit) this morning. They want to monitor him for a few more days and have been communicating with the team in Edmonton on next steps. There are two things that are of concern: 1 – His oxygen saturation drops below 60% sometimes. Should be […] A number of people have asked how to get updates automatically. If you register a login, you will get the updates. Today was Gabby’s Birthday and for those keeping track, events seem to happen on some significant day (e.g. Easter, Mother’s Day, Canada Day, 5th year wedding anniversary, Gabby’s Birthday). Once again, Hudson is admitted to BC Children’s and we expected it this time. Hudson was very irritable this morning and inconsolable. He was upset so […] Our friends the Miranda’s, have a little girl who had her first surgery to reconstruct her aortic arch and is doing well! Isabella’s diagnosis was a little different after she was born as she had a small left ventricle and they decided to try and see if it would grow! We are praying for them […] Today, Hudson’s friend Cooper had a successful Glenn (The second of three surgeries). Yah! We are very happy for him and have been praying for his success. He is about a month older than Hudson. Next Thursday, Aug 5/10 we’ll be at Children’s talking about scheduling Hudson’s Glenn. We’ll most likely be going to Edmonton […] Today Hudson turned 3months old. Hard to believe my little guy is already that old, he isn’t a tiny little newborn anymore. Sometimes it seems like the time went so fast but other times just feels like I just got him home. I mean it’s weird he was in hospital for the first 5weeks of […] It’s been a few days since we were able to come back home thankfully. After Hudson’s catheterization on Saturday evening, everyone was watching him to see how he would do. On Sunday his sats were still bouncing around a bit and I was getting overly excited and anxious. One moment I heard he was doing […] Thanks to all your prayers (and some “nagging” by Gabby (she said it!), Hudson is now getting the cath to balloon/dilate the narrowing as I type this! Wow, I don’t even know what else to write here, this is so exciting. Praying while he is getting this procedure done! Yesterday (Friday, Jul 2, 2010), Hudson was the 3rd case scheduled for a cath procedure to dilate/balloon the narrowing at the top of this Sano shunt to pulmonary artery. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get to him and he was rescheduled for Monday, July 4, 2010. Seems to be a recurring theme for events happening on some […] A new poll added on the right. The Glenn Procedure is the second of three operations needed for Hudson. It usually happens around 4-6 months of age depending on his oxygen saturation and weight. He weighs 4.435kg July 1, 2010. His discharge weight was 3.14kg on May 28, 2010. They would like his weight to […] Well it’s wednesday June 30th or wait… it’s midnight so I guess it’s Thursday July 1st? Oh wait it’s Canada day DOH! We get to miss it… Oh well, next year. It’s been 5 days at the hospital already, that almost went fast. We even got to spend our 5th year anniversary at the hospital, […] We’re finally going to make an attempt to reply to a lot of comments tonight, it’s been a long time overdue…. Thank you all for following Hudson Over the past 3 weeks we’ve noticed Hudson’s oxygen saturation decrease. It’s usually been around 80% but has been decreasing to the low 70’s and sometimes in the 60’ish range. This is expected over a much longer period of time as he outgrows his Sano shunt (the gortex piece of tubing from his right ventricle […] I’ve had a draft of this post before Hudson was even born… I just never got around to completing it until now…. –Chris Three-stage surgical procedure A three-stage surgical procedure is an option for some babies and was for ours. These operations have commonalities for every case but there are specific things that are unique […] Sorry, we’ve been slowing in updating the blog… Here are a couple more recent pictures of Hudson! #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Hudson […] It seems so long since I last was able to sit down and write something. Every time I try to sit and write I either get interrupted or I am falling asleep. I did attempt to last night but fell asleep on top of my laptop OOPS!!! Well it’s busy times for sure, but not […] Honestly don’t know why I’m up, I’m exhausted but for some reason I can’t sleep…. It’s coming up on Day 6 for Hudson being at home. He’s doing pretty good, he’s gaining weight and Gabby and I have diligently been feeding him every 3 hours. First we started with the pump and that was taking […] It has been 4 days since Hudson came home and it’s so great having him home, but at the same time it’s soooo busy. I am exhausted beyond belief. I am not even sure how I found the energy to type this post but felt like I needed to document how I am feeling. Overwhelmed […] It’s Friday May 21st and we are coming home, soon, the time was suppose to be at 11:00a.m but it’s now 2:30 and we are still here, just waiting for discharge papers and prescription drugs UGHH!! but we should be making it home sometime today. ………. Hudson’s Journal Entry Hudson Jeremiah Torrens is finally coming […] Today is one week exactly since we left Edmonton and I am sitting here at BC Children’s Hospital watching my little angel sleep, he is so cute I just want to lie beside him and cuddle all day. He looks so peaceful and super adorable. Sometimes he opens half of one eye to see if […] This song was sent to me soon after we found out about Hudson’s heart condition which was at around 20weeks of being pregnant. A friend of ours emailed it to Chris and I and told us that this song was written for two parents that had a baby with Hypoplastic Left Heart. When I first […] Saturday night we all packed up the room and cleaned up a bit then took the kids to Stars On Ice. Ronald McDonald House had free tickets so we decided to tall take a night out. On Sunday morning after packing up the kids to go with their grandma and “tia” (aunt) on Sunday at […] Well today was probably the most eventful of all so far. Gabby got her best Mother’s Day gift ever… She gets to fly back to Vancouver and be around ‘home’ with Hudson. Something she really wanted and it happened 🙂 I guess I cut it close on the poll answers! We weren’t expecting to go […] Gabby is at the hospital this morning with Adriana and the kids. Hayley needed to go to her scheduled war wound check up which is down the hall from NICU. It sounds like Hudson had a good night and his oxygen saturation has been in the 80%-90% for a while now! Amazing! And it sounds […] A quick update. This morning during rounds, they said Hudson is going to stop getting Morphine pumped into him. Yay! Also, they pulled the pacer wires out and he seems to be doing well. He did have a couple episodes of de-sat’ing last night (his oxygen saturation in his blood is less than optimal… In […] The day has finally come, almost 2 weeks after his surgery and we are able to finally hold a baby instead of a load of tubes. It was a very rough day for Hudson since he got his wire test completed which was a brutal test that can’t feel good. They were basically trying to […] The day starts off as usual with the exception that Chris is due to be back at work for 4hrs in the morning. We have managed to arrange something with his Mom and my sister and helping with the two kids while I go see Hudson first thing in the morning. Chris drops me off […] I started this last Sunday but haven’t finished it until today…. So it’s the end of the week and a lot of things happened and still a lot more things to happen. Hayley was sick for a bit, then Hayden got sick, then I got sick. Hayden is still feeling ill in his stomach after […] Well, it’s been a tough week to say the least. Hudson has a pattern of having one really good day and the next day not so great. I guess we are expecting so much from him and want him well and ready to go home soon, but after all he’s had major open heart surgery […] Thank you all for your prayers! A few of our friends, family and church family have asked what they could pray for specifically. As most know, Hudson has been moved from Pediatric ICU (PICU) for critical care to Neonatal ICU (NICU) infant care yesterday around 1pm MDT which is a step in the right direction! […] A video clip of Hudson’s Journey so far… Mondays… This morning at around 915am MDT Hudson had a few heart arrhythmia’s and his blood pressure dropped. This happened about 30minutes after they pulled one of the many lines from him.. It was planned to pull the LA (lateral arterial) line this morning but I guess Hudson’s little body just didn’t like it. Now […] Hudson’s chest was finally closed because he’s dry and is no longer retaining the fluids from having surgery. Really, it has only been 3 days since he had surgery, but both Chris and I were just impatient and eager to have his chest closed because it’s just one step closer to recovery and being able […] For Hudson’s first operation (Norwood w/ Sano shunt), he had his ribs cut from his breastbone/sternum so they could operate on his little walnut-sized heart. After the operation, they leave his chest ‘open’ and just sew the skin over top for a few days until the swelling goes down so his “newly re-plumbed” heart doesn’t […] The day started early, woke up at 4:30 a.m. after not sleeping much, just thinking about his surgery and if it was really going to happen or was it going to be cancelled last minute due to other priority surgeries. His surgery was scheduled for 7:30a.m, therefore, I wanted to hold him before he went […] Hudson’s first (almost) 24 hours in PICU (Pediatric ICU) have been great. The words from the cardiac doctors are that he “is doing great and we’re not just saying that”. They are continuing to monitor his progress and expect to maybe close up his chest this weekend and by Monday or Tuesday be able to […] It’s Apr 22/10 2pm MDT and Dr Ross came down the corridor towards us and he looked relaxed. He came up to us and said everything went well and he’s happy with the surgery. We have heard nothing but good things about Dr. Ross and you can us to that list. He is very nice […] Hudson went into the Operating Room this morning at 7:30am MDT. He was carted off in his “temporary home” around the corner from the Neonatal ICU. This first procedure is called the Norwood Procedure with Sano Modification/Shunt Please pray that everything goes as planned and that God guides helps the surgeons hands and mind make […] It is amazing how much love you can feel for your child from the moment you find out your pregnant to the first time you see their little face, the love just intensifies and your in love forever and how you would do anything to protect this new little person placed in your arms for […] A lot of requests for some more pictures and sorry it’s taken so long, but here are a few! Click on the pictures to enlarge them if you want #gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-3 .gallery-caption { Only an hour old and trying to get the IV out of his hand already 🙁 Cuddle time with mommy after being stabilized More cuddle time The “Stork” transport used to transport Hudson from Royal Alex to UofA The capsule portion Hudson would be in Group shot before being transported in the “Stork” 18hrs Old (Hayley too busy with Hudson to be part of the picture) Brother and Sister Love More Brother and Sister Love The hat Hayden and Hayley wore if you can see past the tubes and monitors Sleepy Time Vitals Monitor The “stuff” Hudson is getting through the tubes The $80,000 temporary home. Cuddle time with Daddy Cuddle time with Mommy Hanging onto Dad’s Thumb Hayden outside of NICU playing in the halls Grandma Segura (aka “Poyita” as Hayden and Hayley call her) We saw his eyes open for the first time today! Taking it all in This morning, Gabby spoke with the nurses and it sounds like Hudson’s first surgery will be this Thursday (April 22, 2010) first thing in the morning at 7:30am MDT unless there is an emergency surgery for someone else. Hudson is still doing well, but I can definitely see he is breathing harder from his stomach […] So it’s April 17th, two days after my precious little boy Hudson was born. I am now able to start writing again or perhaps just today. Time has never been so valuable as now. I only wish I was able to stay awake for 24hrs and my body be ok with that. Unfortunately, my body […] Hudson is now 3days 5hrs old as I write and the days are long. I’m finding that this is a lot more work than I expected. Every morning Hayden likes to wake up at 730am MDT (I guess he’s adjusted somewhat) and tell everyone it’s morning. Drawing the curtains and letting the sun shine brightly […] We just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your prayers and comments. We couldn’t possibly respond to each and every one of them but we wanted to let all of you know that we are grateful that each and every one of you is following along. We especially appreciate your […] A video clip was posted on Facebook that I will also share here… This is about 18 hours after Hudson was born. Gabby and I were there around 1230am in the morning visiting until about 200am. After a short nap, Gabby and I took our moms and Hayden and Hayley to see Hudson for the […] It’s a boy! Hudson Jeremiah Torrens Hudson because it just sounded like a “strong” name. We wanted our child to have strength and knew our child would be strong throughout anything! Jeremiah because of Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not […] It’s 330pm MDT. She’s “3cm”. Lots of contractions, she’s really hungry… stressed and upset… she’s trying really hard not to take any drugs because she wants to recover as fast as possible so she can go to Stollery to see baby in NICU. She’s strongly considering epidural and a little hesitant about morphine. With Hayden […] I’m with Gabby in the Labour & Delivery Ward at Royal Alexandra Hospital… It’s 1:30pm MDT and Gabby’s contractions are 3min apart and about 35-45s long. Prayers for safe delivery & mom is kept safe & mom gets to bond with baby for a least a few minutes after birth depending on how he/she is […] Vote for a boy or girl in the right panel! Very thankful for the friends, family and church family we have. We could not have done anything without you all today and we just wanted to thank you for everything. A big thanks to The Kwiatkowskis, Simone, Dawn and Burl Hamm (I hope I spelled everyone names right) for helping us with the kids tonight. […] So Chris was nice enough to share my laptop with me before I go into super intense labour. Well what a day it has been. From the fact that I couldn’t sleep last night because there simply wasn’t a simple position that was comfortable and then to the fact that my water decided to break […] Apparently both grandma’s made arrangements at the same time separately to come out early and ended up on the same flight tonight… and they’ve found each other at the airport. They are both on their way… Wow! The kids and us will be thrilled to see them both 🙂 It’s 730pm MDT and we’re in the Royal Alexandra Hospital waiting… I’m sitting in room 3914 (station 39) in Women’s Hospital with Gabby. Early this morning at 130am MDT Gabby’s water broke. At the time we didn’t know or think it was her water that broke. I was frantically (but trying to keep a straight […] Gabby’s water broke (confirmed at the ObGyn office about 30 minutes ago) last night around 130am. We will have to go to the hospital today to prepare to deliver our little one. Please pray specifically for a safe delivery and mom is also safe during the delivery. She doesn’t have any contractions yet but if […] We’ll be testing out new Themes just to try out a few new things. The “Greener-Side” theme is fixed width and a little restrictive. Trying out a few variable-width Themes I can’t help but constantly think about Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and the more I want to understand it. A lot of people ask “what is it?” and I have usually just pointed them to the wiki page although it’s sometimes really hard to just absorb the information that’s there so I thought to […] It’s Sunday night and we had an eventful day. I just remembered the time when I drove up at 9am last Friday morning to move in a load of stuff into the Ronald McDonald House. Driving up the street there were about 12 police cars including a police van and a whole bunch of officers […] I am feeling extremely pregnant today and am totally doing the waddle walk, I don’t remember ever doing it with the other two pregnancies but who knows. I think that at the end of each day I am just drained even if I do very little all day and I feel like I am going […] Today we have settled into our temporary home at the Ronald McDonald house. We were blessed to have been able to get in 3 days earlier than expected. It’s nice to finally feel a bit more stable and settled in. We’ve managed to unpack our things and organize, which I find important in my life […] Our fourth day in Edmonton and we got to meet the Multidisciplinary team at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, inside the University of Alberta Hospital. They are pretty much the team we will be dealing with through entire procedure of baby’s operation and stay at the hospital. We got to tour the hospital and the NICU […] I’m a guy and I like to fix things… I like to study what’s wrong with something and come up with a solution… The day we found out about our child having Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, surely something was overlooked and I could come up with some recommendation on how to “fix” this. I’ve gone […] So today was our first schedule appointment to have the Fetal echo done at the Royal Alexander Hospital which is equivalent to Womens’ hospital in BC. This is were all the women with high risk pregnancies deliver. Our appt was at 8:30a.m. we made it a bit late because didn’t realize it was rush hour […] Well we are finally here and made it without any problems whatsover, everything went really well and the kids behaved amazing. I think it helped tremendously having to travel in a motorhome vs a 4runner truck. The kids were able to move and play games, puzzles eat at a table and have their naps lying […] The day has finally come, we are actually going to be temporarily moving to Edmonton Alberta to deliver our third baby. So many last minute things and last minute packing. I felt like I had to leave everything in good order before we left in order to come back to normality. I guess I can […] We finally made it to Edmonton, I (and so did Gabby) tried posting something earlier but I lost it because the internet connection from the hotel is quite spotty. This time I’ll be sure to backup often. Anyways, Saturday was a hectic day as we tried to get some last minute tasks done. I had […] Today is exactly one week before we leave for Edmonton and it feels like our lives are about to change forever. So many emotions come with that, anxious, scared, nervous, just simply not being sure what this journey is all about, just trusting and believing that we are in God’s hands and he will lead […] Chris and I decided to set up this blog so we can share our life with our two great kids and with our third due April 23, 2010. It is something we have been wanting to do since our first child was born, but never got around to it. Now it just seems like a […] |
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