a picture is worth a thousand words

I have been struggling with wrapping my head around the concept that without Trevor, Hudson wouldn't have survived. Trevor saved our son's life. Hudson wouldn't be Hudson without Trevor. Even now, typing those thoughts, it seems surreal. Almost as surreal as these past few days.

I wasn't in the room the first time that Hudson truly opened his eyes for the first time since surgery. I imagine that some would equate this to missing their child's first steps or first words however, I received the below picture from Morgan when I was visiting Trevor at UW and it was a special moment because I was able to share it with the person that made it possible. Why is this picture a big deal? This picture represents the first time that we have seen white in Hudson's eyes and his skin hasn't been jaundice since he was born. He looks like a....normal baby.

I have spent today taking deep breaths and feeling just a little lighter as the knots in my stomach loosen because I realize that this is real. Trevor and Hudson really did this thing. We did this thing.

I say all of this knowing that the road to recovery is far from over and we still have a lot of hurdles to overcome. Below documents the progress we have made so far.

Trevor

Trevor's update is brief but don't let that minimize the seriousness of the surgery he just endured. Honestly, Trevor's update is brief because he has continued to impress us all and hit every recovery milestone.

Trevor was transferred from the ICU to the surgical recovery floor on Tuesday. He was able to rest comfortably the last few days and once the doctors and Trevor agreed upon a plan for pain management, they agreed discharge tomorrow, July 14th was likely. When Trevor is discharged, he will continue to rest and relax at our home here in Seattle until he is cleared to fly home to be with his family.

Hudson

The doctors explained that much of Hudson's first few days would be finding a good balance between making Hudson comfortable without sedating him too much. That proved to be true throughout the day on Wednesday. We had a slight scare on Thursday morning when Hudson spiked a fever, increasing his heart rate and making him work a little harder to breathe. Overall, he was incredibly uncomfortable. Surgeons called for extensive labs and cultures to be completed as well as an ultrasound to make sure his stomach wasn't full of fluid or anything else alarming. His temperature went back down a couple of hours later followed by his heart rate returning to normal and oxygen levels evening out. He spent the rest of today relaxing, catching up on the sleep he missed out on last night and watching Moana. He even had the energy to play with some of his toys.

The goal over the past couple of days has been to minimize the swelling so they can get back into the OR and close up his incision. Besides the obvious importance of closing up his stomach, closing the incision will allow doctors to decrease his sedation and get him breathing on his own. The indicator that the swelling is in a good place is when Hudson's fluid level intakes (intakes = IV fluids given to him + medications for example) are even with the fluid levels out of him (out = urine + multiple drains from his incisions for example).

We will know tomorrow if doctors want to go back into surgery to close him up and start the next chapter in healing!

We will continue to update you all! Thank you for continuing to support us and our family!

XOXO,

Jordan, Morgan, Hudson, Dude and Jax