Kodak Challenge Father of The Year Contest(ends July 24)

[KittyPaws]

To celebrate the importance of close relationships between dads and their children, we'd like your nomination for Father of the Year 2009.

http://contest.canadianparents.com/?...heyear_contest

10 Finalist prizes are a Kodak Pocket Video Camera
1 Grand Prize a trip to Orlando, Florida

[Dee09]

Thank you

[ghosthunt]

cool,thanks!

[Moongalz]

I don't have a father, I entered my mother. Probably one of my best entries..

[Litesandsirens911]

oooh, thanks, great contest!

[Littlemoe0]

Thank you for the post.

[Kelly99]

My cousins husband is one of the 7 finalists for Father of the Year !

It all started here.

Copious amounts of love and tears from Marci and me during what is easily the most trying times of our lives. Without all of your prayers, love, support and FOOD, we could not have made it this far. Words cannot remotely begin to express our collective gratitude.



It will be a chore for me to write a short note about the past 6 weeks but I will do my best. Feel free to skip to the end if you’re pressed for time but the events that we have encountered thus far would easily make a motion picture trilogy.



Marci was to have been induced into labour on October 15 but lack of a cardiac bed at Sick Kid’s delayed the birth of our girls for days. This was a sign of things to come.



Ayva Stella and Rubi Stacey-Anne Bordignon were born at 8:27 and 8:57am respectively on Saturday, October 18, 2008, at Mt. Sinai Hospital.



Marci came into the hospital at 2pm on October 17, her labour was intense and lasted 14 hours, during this time she was administered an epidural needle and catheter 3 times and Ayva had a probe stuck into her head to examine her vital signs while still in the womb. By the time things were all said and done and rooms were sorted out in 2 different hospitals we both remain awake for 32 straight hours. I do not recommend this to anyone.



Ayva weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces, Rubi was exactly 2 pounds lighter. They are identical twin angels that came into this world naturally. I will never question Marci’s strength and stamina again.



Before I deal with Ayva’s epic journey through procedures, medications and a few near death experiences I’ll sum up Rubi’s condition in a nutshell.



She’s boisterous, rowdy, pigs out every 2 hours, and parties most of the night. This confirms she is my daughter. Rubi surpassed her much larger sister in weight in just 3 weeks. She is pink, huge and full of attitude. May the Lord continue to help us all.



As you know Ayva was diagnosed with a heart condition known as Pulmonary Atresia roughly 3 months before she was born. Upon birth she was stabilized and Marci and I were allowed to see her before she was whisked away to Sick Kids. Little did we know that it would be exactly one month from that moment before Ayva would see her sister again.



Four days after birth Ayva underwent a procedure to repair her heart condition. It involved a catheter being snaked through her main artery in her right leg, up through her abdomen and into her heart. Doctors were to have “burned” open her pulmonary valve which was fused shut and did not allow her left heart ventricle to develop normally. This they managed successfully, but a procedure to keep a duct open with a miniature steel stint to help oxygenate her blood could not be completed as hoped so the doctors called it a day and said they’d have to come back and do that at a latter time. Her duct was too large for the stint required and Ayva needed some time to be weaned of the nasty drugs that were keeping it open.



This was our first setback. Every time you enter the heart for any reason you encounter great risk. We dealt with it, but what was to come was even more harrowing.



The artery in Ayva’s leg that was used as a pathway to reach the heart became clotted severely 1 day after the procedure. The entire leg turned a ghastly shade of purple-black. There was legitimate concern that she would lose her leg because of severely decreased blood flow. This form of severe thrombosis needed to be treated with a liquid Drano for the arteries drug which had one major side effect; bleeding of the brain, which is virtually untreatable in infants.



We decided to go for it in the interests of saving her leg. Not only did she pass with flying colours after the fist treatment, the doctor’s suggested we try it again. We were happy but very frightened to roll the dice again. But we did and the second procedure helped her leg even more and it continues to recover. A few more months of treatment will tell us if there will be any lasting effects. The doctor’s are confident there won’t be.



But this is by no means the end of the collateral damage my friends. Poor little Ayva had much more turmoil to come.



After treating her thrombosis via drastic measures the heart specialists were ready to go back in to finish the work they were hoping to accomplish in the first place, to place a stint in Ayva’s heart duct.



Imagine our horror when we realized they were to enter the same leg with the catheter to perform the procedure. Thankfully they went through a vein instead of her artery and there was no clot this time around.



This procedure went perfectly as well and we were beginning to believe that the worst was behind us. We were very wrong. Let this be a reminder to you all that complacency can bite you in the ass with extreme prejudice.



About 1 week after her last heart procedure Ayva stopped eating. She was placed back on fluids and fats via IV as the doctors believed she had some form of infection. She was vomiting for a few days and they were trying to figure it all out. At one point one doctor said it was nothing to be concerned about. Roughly 48 hours after this conversation we received a telephone call very late one Saturday night that Ayva was being rushed into the ER for life saving surgery on her intestines. She needed a section of them cut out or she would die. Period. We gave our consent and rushed down to Sick Kids.



After the surgery the surgeons told us that 15 cm of Ayva’s small intestine had to be removed and she had a 50/50 chance of survival. The next 72 hours would tell.



So we camped out at the hospital for 5 days straight. Thank God Ayva’s bad luck had finally turned. She kept getting better each hour. I pray that no one reading this will ever have to wait and see if their child will live or die. We stared at her wondering how many breaths she had left.



Currently Ayva is on a myriad of drugs for her heart, thrombosis in her leg, her intestinal difficulties and special formula. She is pale and gaunt and will need a colostomy bag for the next 2 months at the very least. But she's a very strong little thing and she's already begun challenging her sister on the eating front.



We continue to ask and need your prayers. Shockingly Ayva may still come out of all this virtually unscathed. If her leg heals up 100% (which it should), they sew her tummy back together (end of January) and reassess her heart condition in February to determine next steps (there might not be any if her heart continues to heal on its own) she will live her life as a perfectly normal little girl.



Considering the arduous journey we’ve travelled thus far a fairy tale ending like that is what we feel is owed to her. But as we all know life does not always work out this way. We will fight and hope and pray like a family should.



Our daughter will always be know as a stunning miracle and we will love her beyond anything comprehensible no matter what else life wants to throw at her and us.



We will fight on and remain strong because that’s how we must be!



Love to you all and thanks so very much.



John, Marci, Rubi and Ayva Bordignon.

He is the "Multiple Blessing" Dad. Click here to watch the video and vote
http://canadianparents.com/article/v...-the-year-2009

Please take a minute and vote for John !