70 Days...

The countdown is on...

In case you don't know, that means that we are only 70 days from Tucker's 3rd open-heart surgery. 

Back in March 2010, when Tucker had his 2nd surgery, this 3rd procedure seemed so far away. Now we are just over 2 months away. He will have his pre-op heart cath on May 22nd. During the heart cath they will check his heart and the pressures in his blood vessels to make sure that his body is in good shape for surgery. They will also look at the anatomy of his heart to begin to plan for the procedure. The heart cath is a fairly simple experience and he shouldn't have to stay in the hospital overnight afterwards.

On June 17th we will go to the hospital for his pre-op physical exam, bloodwork, and meeting with Dr. Mendeloff, the surgeon. Tucker will also get to spend some time with the child-life specialist where she will explain the surgery to him and let him pretend/play in the mock operating room. Dr. Mendeloff will walk us through the surgery and answer our questions. Pre-op days can be very long, but it is necessary.

The next day, June 18th, we will hand Tucker over to Dr. Mendeloff for the 3rd time in his short life. He will stop Tucker's heart and complete the "repair". The 3rd procedure, the Fontan, involves completing the re-routing of Tucker's heart circulation to eliminate the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. The recovery time can be a week or two or several months, this all depends on Tucker. We are already praying for God's blessing on this surgery and Tucker's healing.

So, 70 days...it will be here in no time at all!

The heavy stuff aside, I wanted to share a few things that have happened for us since my last post (which has been too long).

Finn is now 11 months old and growing and learning quickly. He is now crawling and cruising around the house pretty well. He also got tubes in his ears last month after too many ear infections!

Tucker continues to surprise us daily with something new that he has learned. He is very bright and after being tested by special education diagnosticians, has been deemed ahead in many areas, academically. We had him tested because we had observed some possible speech issues and also to establish a baseline for his cognitive levels in case there were complications with his surgery.

We had a great trip to the wildlife preserve in Glen Rose, Texas for Spring Break and also got to spend time with our family for Easter.

I'm sorry if this seems like scattered/rushed post, but its just what was on my mind tonight. Enjoy some pictures and video of the boys.

Wagon time

Tucker with his friend the zebra

Tucker - 10 months old                     Finn - 9 months old

Brotherly love!

Tuck & Finn - Easter 2013

Maddie, Tucker, Beckett, & Finn - Cousins

Tucker picking up his NASCAR tickets

Tucker's 1st NASCAR race

Ready to roll

Smiley!

Balloon boy

Crusing

Hamilton Family Vacation 2012

The Hamiltons, (Pops, Granny, Greg, Amelia, Trent, Dena, Maddie, Tucker, Beckett, & Finn) that is, took our annual family vacation this past week. We rented a lake house in Granbury, Texas and it was a great time! 

Granny & Pops with the grandkids!

We, mostly, just hung out around the lake house, which was literally steps from the water, but we did venture out for a few fun things.

Beckett is ready for the PGA tour!

On Thursday, we drove to Glen Rose to visit Dinosaur World and Dinosaur Valley State Park. At Dinosaur World, Maddie and Tucker got to dig for fossils and see "life-sized" replicas of about 30 different types of dinosaurs. They thoroughly enjoyed it! Tucker would run up to a dinosaur and growl at it, then he would run away saying, "Scary! He gonna eat me, daddy! Save me!" I don't think that he was really scared, he was just being dramatic and playing games because he would run up and growl at the next one on the walk. Next we went into Dinosaur Valley State Park to look for real dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River. The water was too high to see the tracks, but Tucker and Beckett got to splash in the river and have some fun.

Tucker, in the mouth of a T-Rex

Maddie & Tucker, future paleontologists

Does he look scared to you?

Beckett & Tuck, enjoying the Paluxy river

 On Friday, we visited the Granbury city beach, which is awesome! The city sectioned off a portion of the lake from boat and fishing traffic. They also trucked in enough sand from South Padre Island to make a true beach and go out about 50 yards into the lake. It was the nicest lake beach that I have ever been to. The kids spent the day splashing, throwing sand, building sand castles, and "swimming". I think that Beckett had the most fun of all, splashing and swimming the entire time.

Granbury city beach

Beckett, the little fish!

Tucker, enjoying the water

We also spent some time attempting to catch fish. The lake house had a boat dock and a sun-deck above it. The dock was perfect for fishing and we saw lots of fish. After a day and a half of losing tons of bait, I realized that our hooks were too large. After a quick change of hooks, we started catching some fish. Maddie caught a perch, as did I, and Tucker caught a small catfish. They were so excited to catch the fish, but didn't want to touch them.

The view of Lake Granbury from the dock

Maddie, fishing woman

The sun deck

Tucker's whopper!

It was a short and simple trip, but we all had fun and were able to spend some quality time together!

Beckett giving Finn kisses

Oh, and yes, Finn was there too, but he pretty much slept the whole time!

See! I told you Finn was there!

~Trent

A Picture is Worth...

I know it is cliche, but a picture is definitely worth a thousand words.

Between Easter, baseball games, trains, and birthdays, we have had a busy two weekends. This past weekend was especially packed. We had an Amazing Little Hearts event at the Frisco RoughRiders game on Friday night, "A Day Out with Thomas" on Saturday morning, then a birthday party Saturday afternoon. I could go into great detail about our fun with Tucker, but I'm going to let the pictures do the talking this time. Needless to say, we love this kid!

Enjoy!

Our handsome man on Easter!

RoughRiders Game

Fun with Thomas & Friends!

Our little engineer

Tucker & his Friends!

Ready to go to Sodor!

Tucker, Pops, & Thomas

Sir Topham Hatt, Tuck, & Mommy

Happiness is a pony ride!

Baby Finley is now a little over a month away, we can't wait to share pictures of him too!

~Trent

Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break!

YOU are invited!

Before I get into all of our family stuff, I want to share an opportunity that is coming up. I have been planning the first Whole Hearts Foundation event for Dallas for months. The time has finally arrived to put all of that planning into action. Our Whole Hearts "social" and fundraiser is this coming Sunday at 1pm at Medical City Children's Hospital. It will be a reception in the atrium of the hospital and it will feature an acoustic performance by Matt Hammitt (Bowen's dad). He and his wife, Sarah, founded Whole Hearts and they will be sharing their vision for the foundation. All money raised at the event will go to support a special project at Medical City and heart families in Dallas. You all are invited to join us at the event, just RSVP to info@wholehearts.org to let us know you are coming. I have attached a copy of the invitation so you can see it. 

Tucker knows his ABC's

So, for Spring Break we took a short trip to Oklahoma City. We took Tucker to the zoo, which he loved, we went to Bricktown, and we visited the Oklahoma City bombing memorial and museum. It was a great little trip and we had a lot of fun and made some memories. You can read a little more about it on Tucker's caringbridge site here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tuckerhamilton

Mommy, Tucker, and Daddy at "Pops" on Route 66

Can you tell he is ready to go to the zoo???

Tucker and his "pride"!

Tucker & Mommy having lunch at Leo's BBQ in OKC

The other big event for Spring Break was to get Finn's nursery ready. If you didn't know, the nursery was our guest room. It was painted the color of a Tiffany jewelry box and VERY feminine. This would not do for our new little man. We picked out some crib bedding after we found out it was a boy and it is red, white, and blue. The idea was to save the red and white stripes that were in the middle of the room and paint the Tiffany's blue to match the bedding.

I started priming the walls on Wednesday night and then moved on to the paint on Thursday. The top half of the room is light blue, almost like denim, and the bottom half is navy blue. I finished up on Friday afternoon, with some help from my mom and dad. There was only one mishap, a puddle of spilled navy blue paint in the middle of the beige, carpeted floor. After trying numerous things to clean the stain, I gave up and decided to up the stain with beige paint. It doesn't look great, but I think it will be okay until I can find someone who can patch the piece of carpet. See the before and after pictures below.

Before - "Tiffany's" room            After - Finn's room

It was a great Spring Break, not too busy, but not boring. Now comes the countdown to the end of school and the arrival of Finn. We are ready for the new little guy to get here and join our family.

Thanks, as always, for visiting and sharing our family journey with us.

God Bless,

~Trent

A Piece of our Little Heart

You may not know this, but we LOVE Sanctus Real. When we found out that their lead singer, Matt, was going to have a son with HLHS, we went to their concert to meet him. We actually had never heard their music before, but we instantly fell in love with it. Even if you take away my friendship with Matt, I would still listen to their music. I have yet to find a Sanctus Real song that I didn't like.

All that being said, we listen to Sanctus Real fairly often. In fact, that is pretty much all I listen to in my truck because of Tucker. Every morning when we go to school and every afternoon when we go home, the first thing Tucker says upon entering my truck is, "Daddy...Tucker...listen...Matt...peese!" This is Tuckerese for "Daddy can we listen to Sanctus Real please?"

With all of that time spent listening to Sanctus Real, you can imagine that we know the songs well. We know them so well, that Tucker knows most of the words to the songs on their cd "Pieces of a Real Heart". He even knows the music without the words, he can recognize most Sanctus Real songs within 2-3 seconds of their start. Often times, if the music is low enough, we can catch him singing along in his sweet voice.

A few weeks ago, we were sitting around listening to music and we were actually able to catch him singing with the video camera on our phone. I have included the videos for your viewing pleasure!

Tucker isn't the only one who enjoys Sanctus Real. Since we met Matt, we have been to 6 of their concerts and have enjoyed them all. We will going to our 7th this weekend. Sanctus Real is wrapping up their tour with Casting Crowns and The Afters, so Dena and I are driving to Temple, Texas to see them. We are especially excited about this concert because Matt will be performing a song that he wrote for his son, Bowen, called "All of Me". We have seen him perform it before, but this will be the first time that we will see him share Bowen's story with a special slide-show going, and this will be a much larger crowd than usual. Here is Matt singing "All of Me" at the last concert that we went to, I know you will enjoy this:

In addition to the concert, Dena and I are taking the rest of the weekend to spend some time together. We will be going down to San Antonio after the concert to enjoy the River Walk. We are excited for a weekend away and are happy that we can leave Tucker to have some fun with Granny & Pops!

Thanks for visiting us and we hope that everyone has a great weekend!

~Trent

Everything is Cooking

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Our week started out with a nerve wracking visit with the Perinatologist. For those that don't know, a perinatologist is a doctor who uses ultrasound to look at a fetus closely and take measurements to ensure that everything is going well with the pregnancy. We were more anxious than normal because of Tucker and because we saw a perinatologist twice with Tucker and she didn't catch his defect, even though she should have seen it.

Because of our previous experiences, we were not really sure what to think and very skeptical of any news that we received during our visit. The main difference for us was that this doctor came to us highly recommended by Dena's new ObGyn and by Dr. Thomas, Tucker's cardiologist. We thought that the doctor would be looking at the entire baby, but because of how early it is in the pregnancy, he could really only check for signs of Down's Syndrome. The good news is that there were no signs that the baby would have Down's Syndrome, they will confirm this with a blood test, results should be coming tomorrow. The "bad" news is that, while he did humor us and look at the heart, it was too early to see anything. We will have to wait until our next visit on January 2nd to look at the heart. Dr. Thomas should be at the next visit too, just to get a second set of eyes on the heart. We should also find out the gender of the baby on the 2nd too, so it will be a VERY big day!

The rest of the week was great! We spent a lot of time with my family and got to relax some. We also took Tucker to his first movie in a theater. We went to see "The Muppets" and Tucker had a pretty big time. He got his own popcorn, drink, and candy and got to sit in his own chair. He did okay, but got a little bored about 3/4 of the way through the movie. He love the songs and danced and clapped during the big finale!

Tucker at his first movie, The Muppets

Too much fun at the movies!

The other big thing on the horizon, besides the holidays, is that I'm about to start a new venture in life. As most of youI know, we are very involved in the CHD world as a result of our experiences with Tucker. For several months I have been working with Matt Hammitt, Bowen's dad, on the new Whole Hearts Foundation. I have been answering emails from new CHD parents, old CHD parents, families, friends, etc. I have also been in charge of the Whole Hearts facebook page. Whole Hearts will be teaming up with a new social network for CHD families, called Heartwaves.org. I have been asked to be a dad blogger for this new website. I am very excited about this opportunity. I hope that my experiences can help other dads and CHD families that are just starting this journey. I'm a little nervous about having enough to say and I will definitely have to improve upon my writing skills, but it should be fun! I will post information about my blog once we are up and running sometime in January. Right now, I've got to come up with a topic for my first blog entry, I feel writer's block already starting to creep in...oh no!

Tucker helping with the tree!

 I do have some more to say this week. Look for a post about our favorite group, Sanctus Real, and Tucker's love for their music!

As always, thanks for visiting and be sure to come back soon!

~Trent

Spring Break with Surgical Precision

Well, here we are, Spring Break, one of the joys of being a teacher!

The plan for this week was to relax a little bit and then spend several days camping at Lake Texoma...plans change!

Dena has been having chest and side/back pains for several weeks and after seeing the doctor, it was determined that she had gallstones. The only way to fix the gallstones is to remove the gallbladder. She met with a surgeon last week and they scheduled the surgery to remove it for today. This was not how we wanted to spend our Spring Break, but if it makes her feel better then it is worth it!

We checked in at Baylor Regional Hospital of Plano at noon today and her surgery was scheduled for 2:30 pm. The check-in process was not the most pleasant experience! Even though they called us yesterday to let  us know what to expect today, they failed to mention that we would be required to pay for at least 40% of the surgery today. When we checked in, they asked for the money and we were certainly surprised; no money, no surgery...THANK GOD for credit cards!!! I'm not sure when this type of expectation became standard practice for hospitals, but apparently it is very common, we just haven't dealt with anything like this before.

The surgery for removing a gallbladder is done laparoscopically. They don't make a large incision, they make several small ones and use a camera to see what is going on and small tools to perform the surgery. The procedure itself only took about 45 minutes. Dena did great through the surgery and everything went well. The doctor said that her gallbladder was basically useless because of the gallstones and that she would feel like a new person once she was recovered from the surgery. The hardest part of this procedure is dealing with all of the air that they pumped into her chest cavity to be able to use the laparoscope. Getting rid of the gases over the next week or so will cause some pain and discomfort, but she has dealt with it before and she will be fine.

While Dena was in the day surgery area waiting for surgery and while she was in surgery, I got to wrangle a stir-crazy 18 month old. We took toys and videos for the computer, but all he wanted to do was roam the halls. He didn't get a morning nap so he was very tired and this made things worse. Thankfully, there was a very nice man working in the waiting room and he found an empty consultation room with a couch where we could turn down the lights and let him nap. After about an hour of napping, he was ready to go again. He was actually pretty good, about as good as you could expect a toddler to be in that type of situation, but it is not something that I want to try again for a while! It was also helped by the fact that Dena's mother was there with me and then our pastor came too.

They started her surgery at about 3:30 and we were in the car leaving the hospital by 6:00. It is amazing that technology has advanced so much that Dena can have a part of an internal organ removed and go home from the hospital 3 hours later. She was nauseous and very tired after surgery, but she should feel better tomorrow. We made a couple of stops on the way home for some food and some pain medication. Bert and Barbara made a great salad for her and after dinner, she and Tucker were ready for bed. She will need to take it easy for several days, but should be ready for work next week. They actually said that the more she does this week, the easier it would be to get rid of the air in her chest and she would feel better faster.

So, as far as our camping plans go, we will see how she feels tomorrow and if she is up to it, we will head to the lake with the camper on Thursday. I think that she will be fine and she can relax at the lake like she can here. But if she isn't up to it, we will just spend some quality time here at the house.

The other BIG news that we have is that we have a team to participate in the 1st Annual HEART WALK in Corinth, TX! A national heart group, It's My Heart, is teaming up with Lake Dallas High School to put on the event. Our team, called Team HEART BUDZ, will be walking for Tucker and our buddy Ethan. We need people to walk with us and would love for you to join our team, you can do so by clicking here and selecting "Join Our Team"! The weather should be great and you are supporting a GREAT cause, so please come out and show your love for Tucker. If you can't come, but would still like to help, you can make a donation to our team by clicking here! Every dollar helps us reach our team goal of $500. Please honor Tucker by walking or donating and help us help other CHD families!

Thanks for reading the blog, leave us a comment to let us know that you were here!

~Trent

Plus 1!

For those of you who know my family, you probably wonder how much bigger we can actually get...well, it seems like we get bigger every day!

Aunt Dena with Beckett

Beckett relaxing

Uncle Trent and Beckett

I told you a few months ago that my brother and sister-in-law were expecting a baby boy. That addition to our family arrived this past Wednesday, March 2nd. Beckett Hayden Hamilton came to us last week, weighing in at 9 lbs. 12 oz with a length of 20 in. We are all very excited about Beck and we are happy that mom and baby are doing great. Beck is a big boy and he likes to eat! As excited as we are, I don't think that anyone's happiness can compare to the big sister, Maddie!!! Amelia and Beckett were discharged from the hospital today and they are all at home tonight...hopefully getting some rest.

Proud big sister, Maddie, and Beckett

The Hamilton Men!

Beckett is following in daddy's footsteps!

We can't wait to go see Beckett again, but we have to get our little man well first. Tucker was sick all day yesterday and we took him to the doctor today. In addition to an upper-respiratory infection, he is dealing with the flu. Needless to say, he is not a happy camper right now and we are ready for a stretch of health for our family! You can read more about the crazy, sick last month for us at www.caringbridge.org/visit/tuckerhamilton.

Finally, I want to share with you about a new family that we have been connected to through our friendship with Matt Hammitt. I was introduced, through email, to Alexis and Vince about a month ago. They are a very young, married couple who just found out that they are expecting a daughter, Scarlet, who has HLHS. Because they are young and newly married, this is especially hard for them. I have been in contact with Alexis over the last few weeks and have been trying to show them love and support like we received. They live in Las Vegas, so it is difficult to help a whole lot, but we are trying to be there for them and answer any questions that they have. Alexis went for a check-up with the cardiologist this week and she received some difficult news. The doctor told her that part of Scarlet's hard is not letting enough blood get to her lungs and that she may not survive until birth. I know that God performs miracles every day and I would appreciate if you would begin praying for a miracle in Scarlet's life. I also know, that God has a perfect plan for this family and that it may mean that Scarlet doesn't survive. Please also pray that God will look after and bless this young family, especially if they have to deal with loss.

Thanks for visiting us, leave a comment to let us know that you were here!

~Trent