Home sweet home

After 6 very long days we are home 1 day early!!

We are so very happy to be back and be all together again.

Still in hospital

Luca is still in hospital and will be there until Wednesday. All the tests are back in and 2 separate forms of bacteria have been found in his lungs, so we are actually dealing with 2 different strains of pneumonia.

The doctors have decided that to fight both infections Luca needs to complete a full 7 days of
intravenous antibiotics. So in the hospital we will stay until then.

There is no Internet connection at the hospital so I am making the most of a quick trip home to pick up more clothes (dh brought a bag to the hospital but not with the right stuff in it!!) The bag contained lots of Fabio's socks and long sleeves tops which Luca can't wear as his IV is at elbow level.

Luca is doing ok. He had a few tears on Friday when the doctors pushed our original departure date back from Saturday to Monday. But he took yesterday's extension to Wednesday in his stride.

By a strange coincidence Fabio's best friend was admitted yesterday and him and his mum are sharing a room with us. They are good company and that is helping keep Luca's spirits up.

Update on Luca

Well Luca slept well last night which is a great relief. I did not sleep much but that is ok. I seemed to spend the night watching his heart/o2 monitor (do other parents find themselves doing that at night in hospital?) and praying for him and other sick children around the world and slept very little.

The nurses also came in every half hour from 11:00 pm until 5:30 am so it was a busy night.

His fever is coming down this morning and his O2 is up from the 80s into the low 90s and he seems less weak this morning so hopefully the antibiotics are beginning to do their stuff. Thank goodness we are blessed to live in a part of the world where these treatments are so readily available to us.

He is still quite happy to just rest in bed, but once he starts getting restless I will be happy (for once :) ) as it will mean he is really on the road to recovery!

This is Luca's 3rd bout of pneumoia in 5 months, and late last night the pedeatrican on call sat and talked with me about further possible testing to see if he has a, as yet, undetected immunity problem. As I understood last night this will only involve a series of blood tests (at a specialised hospital 3 hours away) but it seems like a good path to take.

Thank you for checking in on Luca.

Luca is in hospital

Luca was admitted to hospital this afternoon with Pneumonia and will be staying in for a few days as he needs to receive antibiotics by IV.

School called at 2.30 pm saying he had a temperature and so I picked him up and went to ER.
We had to wait 1 hour to be seen and in that hour he went down hill so fast it was quite frightening.

I have just popped home to pack our bags for a few days whilst DH sits with him.

Well this is just a quick message to ask for prayers for Luca. I will update in more detail soon.

Painted Tongues for Abby

Please check out The Riggs' Family blog. Their daughter Abby has undergone so many hard and terrible treatments in her fight against Leukemia but yesterday was truly saddened when doctors had to paint her tongue purple to fight a yeast infection in her mouth. Photos of her looking adorable with her purple tongue are on her blog.

You can also get there by clicking on her button on the right hand side of the page.

So as an act of solidarity her father Brent Riggs has asked people to email him shots of them or their kids with their tongues painted. We sent ours earlier today and the boys were thrilled to have the tongues coloured in a bid to make Abby smile. And even painted their faces in camouflage make up too!

A great hospital visit................

So I decided to take option 2 (see today's earlier post for an explanation) and head to the rural hospital.

The hospital we normally go to for the Pediatric ER is in the major city (population 200,000) in our area and is only around 5 years old. So heading to a much smaller and older hospital in a small town. When we got there my preconception of the small rural hospital changed when much to the boys' delight we saw a rescue helicopter on a helipad and I realised that the hospital was also a major trauma centre!

Now I had been praying that we would meet a sympathetic doctor who understands about asthma. On arriving in the general ER within 2 minutes we were taken in to see a Pediatrician.
Now the doctor turned out to only work there 1 day a week and he was a Pediatrician specialised in allergies and asthma!!!!! Prayers were answered.

We spent a long time talking about Luca's treatment plan and the management of asthma and he diagnosed him with a throat infection, double ear infection and bronchitis, signed him off from school for2 more days and sent us home with the necessary medicines and signs to watch for in case the infection turns to pneumonia.

We also spoke about attempting to desensitise his pollen allergies in the autumn. We have asked several doctors about this before but were told it would not be worth if for Luca as his pollen allergies are classed as Level +6 the normal maximum level being 6. A reading of +6 means that
his blood test results exceeded the programmed parameters on the computer reading his blood.
However he was of the opinion that it can't make things worse so is worth a try. We will definitely be looking into it and making a decision about that this summer.

So tonight I feel much happier. Luca despite being full of bugs he seems OK and hopefully will now begin to improve.

Update on Luca

Well Monday turned into a long, long day!

I ended up taking Luca to the Pediatric ER at 6.00 am.

Their advice?

Triple his normal 24 hr dosage of "emergency scenario" cortisone and come back tonight
if it is not better. Despite his peak flow being so low, the on call doctor sent us home as he could not hear much wheezing despite the fact that Luca is constantly coughing.

Well at 9.oopm we returned to the same ER where a different doctor was on call this time.
As Luca had coughed non-stop for 5 hours despite their cortisone advice and several nebulisers we knew we needed something else to get him through the night comfortably. He was pale with exhaustion and tiredness. Her advice? He should learn some relaxation exercises to learn to keep calm!!!!!!!!!!! And then she gave him some form of Codeine with a sedative. Which calmed his cough but knocked him out. As codeine suppresses breathing I do wonder at the wisdom of this choice. But on the other hand we all got a good nights sleep.

I have come to the conclusion that I have probably seen more asthma crisis's than most of our local pediatric ER doctors and that they do not always realise the severity of the problem. Now Luca's asthma always manifests itself at first as constant coughing but it seems that a lot of doctors only consider the asthma to be a problem if there is acute wheezing too. Luca's specialist who is based a 2 hr drive from here drew up an asthma action plan and said that his condition must be measured by the peak flow and not the sounds of his chest. But the local doctors do not seem to take much notice of that (sigh).

And now it is Thursday morning and Luca is coughing up green mucus so it looks like he has a chest infection. Unfortunately his local excellent pediatrician is away on vacation so we can't get an appointment to see him. So we are now faced with another trip to the local Pediatric ER....aaahhhhh. The thought does not fill me with glee.

We have been recently advised by his main specialist that he must always have antibiotics if he is bringing up green mucus as a CT scan has shown that he has some damaged bronchial tubes at the bottom of his lungs and he has already had several bouts of pneumonia in those spots. Unfortunately we do not have the written report of that appointment yet to take along and justify to other doctors, not familiar with his case, the need for antibiotics.

Unfortunately most doctors do not want to prescribe antibiotics. So today we need to go and see a doctor and try and convince them of his need for antibiotics. I feel filled with a sense of dread knowing that I must fight for what is best of Luca today but knowing that a doctor can refuse the antibiotics and then we are leaving ourselves open to pneumonia. Sigh.

I really do not want to return to the Pediatric ER where we were on Monday and am now mulling over what to do.

We have 3 choices...

1) Return to the Pediatric ER and run the chance of getting one of the
"triple the cortisone" or " teach him to relax" doctors again.
2) Try the emergency department of a smaller rural hospital closer to home.
3) Go to our Family doctor who may not be experienced in pediatric care.

Please think of us and with us luck on our quest today.

It is the middle of the night....

It is just after 1.00 am and Luca is sitting on the sofa having a nebuliser treatment.

I have already also given him an oral steroid and he has atrovent, ventolin and pulmicourt going in his nebuliser.

It sounds like he has a sore throat so his cough is more of a croup one but from past experience we know that this means that his lungs are already closing up. On his asthma action plan the cut off point for his peak flow (a device that measures how much air he is getting into his lungs) is 130. Just before putting on the nebulisier he was at 80! Scarily low. As we live 30 mins from the hospital we have to neb him before moving him so that is where we are at the moment.

Here is praying that his peak flow has come far enough up after this treatment to let us stay here. But if there is any doubt..we are off to ER.

Please pray for Luca and I will update as soon as we can.

It has been just under 6 months since his last hospitalisation and we really want to avoid another one.

9 years ago today.......

Today Luca turned 9, and I keep asking myself how that happened!

I know it is a cliché but it does truly only seem like a short time ago that we brought him home from the hospital. Today, as each year, I have been reflecting on and remembering Luca's entrance into the world . And giving thanks for the blessing that he truly is. Due to his severe asthma we have come close to losing him a few times and I always take extra time on his birthday to remember how lucky we are that we still have him with us. We do remember and give thanks every day but even more so especially on his birthday. Sweet blessings.

Luca was due on DH Armand's birthday - 24 March 2000. He is our 1st born and
we were so excited - but looking back so naive!!

We went to bed at midnight on 2nd March and I woke up a while later at 2.00 am, for one of my then frequent night trips to the bathroom. Well shortly after sitting down on the loo my waters broke - just a trickle but definitely amniotic fluid. I shouted to DH to wake up and come to the bathroom. But he just carried on snoring. Blissfully unaware that his first child was getting ready to make his entrance into the World. So I got up and with waters trickling crossed the bathroom towards the door and then suddenly whoosh water was gushing out all over the bathroom tiles. By then DH was groggily awake. I dripped my way back to sit on the loo just as DH stumbled sleepily into the bathroom and walked barefoot straight into the middle of the amniotic fluid!!!!! "Oh the floor is wet" he exclaimed. The expression on his face when I told him what he was standing in was priceless.

The water fun did not stop there though!!! Halfway to the hospital we decided to stop at a bank and get some cash from the cash machine. It was a bank where the machine was situated in a lobby and you needed to swipe your bank card to get the security door to open. For some reason DH's card would not work so I got out of the car to go and help, when once more Whoosh water was flowing all over the pavement. We had some good laughs that night and even during the following 37 hour labour and consequent C-section. Even now we try to make sure that our daily lives are full of laughter and try to find the light-side in any situation.

Earlier today we asked Fabio (4) to tell us 9 things he loved about Luca and this is what he came up with.

Things I love about Luca....by Fabio

1) I love him.

2) He lets me wear his army hat.

3) He gives good cuddles.

4) He kisses me.

5) He helps me with my writing.

6) He can fly. (? - mum).

7) He tells me about movies.

8) He does not harm me when I am eating my breakfast (mum's note - or at other mealtimes).

9) I love him.

Luca had a great today. We had a family breakfast before school whilst he opened his cards and presents. He was really pleased to get Anne Frank's Diary on both DVD and the book. Luca is passionate about WW1 and WW2 history so whilst those may not be most 9 year old boys idea of a cool present he loves them. On Tuesdays his school finishes at lunchtime. So I picked both boys up at school and we went to Subway for lunch and then onto the cinema to see Bolt in 3D. There were only about 6 people in the whole place! Luca had asked to have a campfire for his birthday so once we got home DH lit a fire in the backyard and we roasted marshmallows. Then whilst the 3 boys stayed out there I made a pile of Buttermilk and Apple pancakes, which the boys demolished topped with Maple Syrup! Mmmm. It was a day of simple pleasures but Luca declared it "his best birthday ever".

Whiskey the Dog

Still on the theme of getting to know us............

Our latest family member - Whiskey - has only been with us for 2 months and as we often say he is the funniest looking Labrador we have ever seen, and behind that phrase lies the story of how Whiskey came to join us.

You see for the last two years Luca had been begging, on at least a weekly basis, for a dog. As in his words "every boy should have a dog mum". It took Armand and I though 2 years to come round to his way of thinking. So once we had hesitantly said "we would see" to the idea of a puppy the debate began over which breed the dog should be.

Now my family in England have always had Labradors - the latest being Charlie a 3 year old Chocolate Labrador. And as we know from experience that Luca is fine around Labradors and they don't seem to affect his asthma I felt this was the only dog we could possibly have. After browsing through several breeders' websites the boys were also taken in and truly hooked by endless photos of Labrador puppy litters playing in gardens or snuggled up to their mums. The 3 of us were soon a lost cause!!!

Armand on the other hand had always had rescue dogs in his family and was just as insistent that any family pet needed to be a rescue dog.

The dilemma being: How many Labrador puppies were queueing up in animal rescue centres to be adopted? Answer: Zilch!!!!

So we found ourselves at an impasse, or so we thought until just before Christmas when we spotted an advert in a pet shop listing dogs available for adoption in a local rescue centre, one of whom was a 2 year old female golden Labrador called Bayley. Well Bayley sounded like the answer to the whole family's prayers. The only small snag as we saw it was that we were about to go away to stay with family for Christmas and arriving with a brand new dog in tow did not seem the best recipe for an easy and relaxed family Christmas. So we decided to enquire about Bayley on our return home on 27th December.

After a great few days spent celebrating Christmas with some of our English relatives we returned home, unpacked the car and set off to the rescue centre. On the way there I repeated the mantra I had been chruining out all Christmas.

"Now remember everyone we are only going to get a dog if it is a Labrador. It can't be any other breed. And we are only coming tonight to have a look, there is no question of us returning home with a dog now, we need to prepare ourselves before adopting a dog and so on and so on."

Well 20 minutes later we found ourselves safely back in the car, with 2 very excited boys strapped in to their car seats , a dog bed, sack of dog food, blanket, lead, collar and 2 bowls safely stored in the boot and on my knees a rather frightened and trembling mutt whom we have come to know and love as Whiskey..the funniest-looking Labrador we have ever seen!

In the beginning........

Well after years of reading other peoples' blogs I have decided to take the plunge and start a blog for our family. Our families and friends are spread over several countries so hopefully this will help us stay in touch. I am not sure how often I will be able to post but heh "nothing ventured nothing gained". As I am currently running about 6 years behind on putting our photo albums together, I hope that this may be a better option for keeping a track of our lives.

So who are we?

I am Sophie a - late "30-something" mother of 2 great little boys and wife to Armand. I work part-time in Human Resources, and whilst I would love to stay at home full-time I look on the bright side and really appreciate not having to work full-time. When I am not working I enjoy being with the boys and Armand, spending time with our 2 families, reading, cooking, reading blogs and gardening.

Our boys are Luca now aged nearly 9 and his younger brother Fabio who is 4.

Luca is a lively, energetic, articulate, caring, chatty, speedy, intelligent nearly 9 year old. Three sleeps and counting. He has a big heart and is always ready to help people who are suffering. He loves drawing, and has a true talent for sketching. He loves most sports especially his beloved rugby, which he plays for 2 hours every Saturday. He also has a passion for World War I and II history and in particular the story of the Memphis Belle and its crew. He has probably seen the film of Memphis Belle over 300 times over the years, and has already worn out one DVD of the film and is now onto his 2nd copy. He dreams of travelling to Dayton, Ohio, to see the Memphis Belle in "real life" Luca's English grandparents live a short 30 minute drive from Bassingbourne in Cambridgeshire, the base where the Belle was based during its tour of duty in WWII. Last summer he was lucky enough to be let into the army base and allowed to see the Memphis Belle memorial and to touch one of the Belle's propellers, which is displayed there. Luca attends Cub Scouts and especially enjoys the camping side of things.

Luca is also severally asthmatic and has to date over 20 known allergies, some to food and some environmental ones. Caring for Luca and keeping him safe provides our family with our own set of challenges. His medical issues are a normal part of our lives, however family life has had to be built up to allow for his needs and to keep him safe. This sometimes means restricting activities. Luca had his first allergic reaction at the age of 3 days old, and experienced anaphalactic shock when given his first taste of egg at the age of 10 months. Whilst Luca understands that he can not eat the same things as other children, it is not always easy to feel "different". I will do a post talking more about Luca and his medical issues another day.

Fabio is our laid back Mr Happy. Nothing much upsets him and he is such a smiler. He rarely cries and just gets on with enjoying life with his ever present smile. Fabio is still at the age where he is always ready with a kiss and cuddle. Long may it last. He just loves his big brother to bits and would love to be a big brother himself. Although that is definitely not in our plans! Fabio started Kindergarten in September 2008 and is doing really well. He seems to have a natural ability for numbers and can recognise all numbers up to 100. He is just beginning to read small simple words too. Fabio plays rugby too on a Saturday although with a lot less enthusiasm that his older brother.

Armand has lived in this area all of his life. Proud of his Italian roots, he loves to return to Italy, and we love to vacation in Italy. For the last 2 years we have taken our holidays on Lake Garda and are hoping to travel to the Tuscany coast this summer. Armand has a full time job working for the national government. Armand works hard to provide for us all but also finds time to have fun with the boys. He is the one who lets them push the limits whilst I tend to be over-protective. But heh that's a mum's role I guess! We have been married for 12 years this summer.

We live truly in the heart of Europe in an area bordering 2 other countries. Neither of us is national of the country that we live in, whilst I am British and Armand is of Italian origin (although he has never actually lived there!). We are bringing the boys up to be tri-lingual which adds another dimension to daily life. We truly enjoy the international aspect of our lives and cant imagine life any other way than our home-grown melting pot.