After 6 very long days we are home 1 day early!!
We are so very happy to be back and be all together again.
Graduates
10 years ago
Showing posts with label Luca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luca. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Monday, March 9, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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".
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