Hello everyone, so sorry I've been away so long. I hope you all missed reading as much as I missed writing to you!
Well there's so much to talk about, I don't even know where to begin. The days before we left for Tennessee were a bit rough. Even though the little guy did awesome immediately after the surgery, he caught some kind of reaction to something they used for his circumcision and had a huge reaction. I mean HUGE! And the ointment I was supposed to be putting on the area only made it worse. It was so bad, it looked like he had a chemical burn! Poor little guy. But after a few days on the new ointment, it did get a little better. But it still hasn't gone away yet, hopefully soon....Also, the ceiling fan in his bedroom went out. And if it wasn't hot enough in there before, it's blazing now! I still have a standing fan and the blower pointed in his room, but the little guy is waking up drenched! To top that off, our a/c is not keeping up either. I have to keep it set on at least 72* and it's still almost 80* by the time we go to bed. Please pray Lucas doesn't get sick.
As far as the trip goes, he did great in the car ride (Thank You God!). I did make sure to suction him pretty frequently and even the kids knew to check the vents and told me when they thought it was blowing too hard on him! (So we didn't have a repeat of last summer's Disney trip.) The first two days there we went to Dollywood, which is like home away from home for me. (For those of you who haven't been there in a while, there is so much new stuff to do.) They had a ton of rides for all ages! We had a blast. Especially on the second day when the little kids got to run around in the water area, so cute! The next few days we just hung out around the house and let the kiddos play in the pool. We stayed at my sisters brother-in-law's home in Knoxville. His house was gorgeous and had plenty of room for all of us. The last few days we went to the big outlet mall and took the kids to ride go carts. We had a really good time; it was a very relaxing trip. Sometimes it's just nice to get away even if you don't do much!
The ride home went smoothly, we left early so we got home a little before 3:00 p.m. But by 6:00 p.m. we were headed to the ER! NO KIDDING! Lucas was sitting in his hi-chair and tried to get out and go play and the chair just toppled out of the chair it was on. UGH! My little guy busted his mouth up! His bottom two teeth came straight through the skin right under his lips and the piece of skin on the inside of his upper lip was ripped away from his gums. The blood was just poring out everywhere. It even started coming out of his trach, which for us means very bad news. Since he's still not eating, all of the blood he was swallowing was going in the wrong hole, and that makes it pretty likely we'll get another infection. On the way to the hospital, he fell asleep in the car. When I tried waking him up, he was not responding at all. His eyes were rolled back and his body was limp, but thank the Lord he was breathing fine. I was finally able to wake him up after about 10 minutes or so and he was fine after that. They did a CT scan and thank God, no broken bones in his head or brain damage. They think he had a slight concussion in the car. :( We won't know for sure if his upper teeth will be messed up until they come in, but if they are messed up, they could come out black or have black spots on them or be crooked or broken. Just our luck huh! His upper lip area is still very swollen, but his bottom lip didn't stay very big for long. He does look like he got punched in the face though. But by that night, he was laughing and smiling and almost back to himself. He's such a trooper!!!!
So we went for our pre-op clearance for his trach removal and got the final ok!! YAY!! (As long as he doesn't get sick before then..*knock on wood* because last time he did.) He's going to be in-patient this time and will have to stay in the hospital for about three days. They're going to put a smaller trach in and then plug it up and keep him on the monitors and make sure he does alright, then they're going to remove it completely if there are no problems (I mean, when there are no problems!). They're also going to remove his port this time around, which should make therapy a little more comfortable. Everything is set to go on Wednesday, and it looks like we'll be leaving the hospital and heading straight for Memphis so the boys can meet their grandfather for the first time. We're all very excited and can't wait for the long weekend.
Well I'm sure there's so much more I forgot, but now that I'm back home, I'll have plenty of time for regular updates again. You know, until we go back in the hospital, then go out of town again.. :)
When Lucas gets his trach out ... we'll be able to take a trip and just bring clothes. No machines, no tons of medical supplies, no special soaps and water...I could keep going but I'll stop! I should've taken a picture of how packed our car gets for trips, but never again!
Days now people, days!! WOOHOOO! I'm so happy for you my baby, I'm proud of how great you've done this past year and hope you're many years to come go by much more smoothly. I love you Lucas! Or as Joshua would say, "I love you Bookie Wookie!" Love you too Joshua!
