dear mr hudson-happy anniversary

DEAR MR HUDSON-HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 

this is mr hudson today as he celebrates his two year anniversary of his life saving kidney transplant from a distant cousin in law 
there were several folks lined up to donate a kidney to him
several were genetically kin to him
as it turns out the distant cousin in law was the best match with him for the kidney transplant

my historian brother an amateur ancestry tree person discovered that mr hudson is actually kin to his donor back in our family tree
a common ancestor moved from the east coast to arkansas back in the mid 1800s

small world huh
i wonder if thats why she was a better match for the transplant

my daughter in law asked me to go with her to her perinatology high risk ultrasound visit
as i saw the scan i knew as he showed and discussed the kidney that there was a problem

from that moment until the pandemic prevented me from being with him at office visits or hospitalizations i was there for all of them

it was hard not to be allowed to be there when he had the transplant
especially when he had complications of a blood clot and infection that prolonged his post op stay by about 2 weeks

i was there when he was born and saw him not long after he was born
he was intubated and on monitors and was markedly swollen all over
all fluid from having his urine flow stopped from his kidneys
this also resulted in some heart failure
overtime this failure and fluid resolved as he lost lots of fluid
 
mr hudson harvested this carrot he planted from his garden 
he loves carrots and sweet peas

not long after he was born a simple catheter insertion broke the obstruction and the urine flowed freely 
but
the damage was all done in utero to the kidneys
their function greatly improved but never got back to normal

i was there for many of the hospital rounds helping to interpret what the medical folks were saying
he had a two month neonatal icu stay

later as he approached his two year birthday his kidney function got to his lowest point
you could see he felt bad

he almost got to the point where he had to get on kidney dialysis
but
a transplant was scheduled then got canceled due to the covid pandemic

this is a picture of hudson all dressed up for his press conference with the president in washington dc as he was representing kids with kidney failure

a few months later it was rescheduled
even though the pandemic was revving back up again

dr kim superwomen transplant surgeon did her thing and got his kidney transplant done from his kidney angel donor

since his transplant his development exploded 
it didnt take him long to get back to his age appropriate growth parameters

man is he ever age appropriate now
as you can see in the picture above he is a cutey

mr hudson helped harvest this squash in my garden

he loves worms and roly polies and digging in the dirt
he loves the beach and swimming and riding his bike and going to parks to play
he loves his monster trucks 
he loves music

mr hudson standing in front of his garden
im teaching him gardening skills

he is an all american soon to be 4 year old

during the pandemic he had to be heavily protected from getting the covid infection especially the wild type covid
he recently got his first covid vaxxine with 2-4 more to go

he was recently allowed to go to preschool after getting released to do so by his pediatric nephrologist

luckily he has his big sister ms b to protect him and to provide companionship
and there were several families with kids that he was allowed to play with during the worst of the pandemic

we formed a covid free bubble for him

so far he has avoided getting infected
a concern since his anti rejection meds make him immunosuppressed

so
today in mr hudsons world is a special day
its his two year anniversary

today finds him
otherwise a healthy happy normal active playful fun to be around almost 4 year old

he is our miracle boy

the organicgreen doctor