What a Difference a Day Makes

On the left is Luke's face at the height of swelling, and on the right is Luke just 24 hours later. They took off the dressing this morning and the little trooper was pretty much himself. He made friends all over the pediatric floor just in time to say goodbye to everyone who treated us so well. We are home now and life is hopefully returning to normal, although it seems eerily quiet with Grace still with her grandparents.

This is our last daily post of Luke's progress. We will go back to occasional posting when notable or funny things happen (or next time Grace gets her hands on a baseball). We will eventually post some more pics in his regular photo galleries, but we will spare the general public images of his gruesome 6" scar. Instead, we will thank everyone for their many calls, notes and prayers for his recovery and our well being. We really felt the support from everyone.

We will have much for which to be thankful on Thursday, and Luke has become a fan of UCLA for life. We just hope that they have a decent football team by the time he is old enough to know better.

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed.

A Swell Day

[Disclosure: This photo is from yesterday but I left the camera at the hospital so didn't have any shots from today. Besides, I like this pic because I'm in it.]

They weren't kidding when they said Luke's head would swell up. After a semi-restful night, he had a rough early morning as his noggin kept growing, swelling his eyes completely shut.As has been his pattern, once he was full and comfortable, he conked out and slept for many hours.

By mid-afternoon, he was clearly feeling better and was trying to open his eyes. Shortly thereafter, the swelling started to recede ever so slightly and Luke was able to look around. I put him into the strap on carrier and we went out exploring the floor. He immediately commenced flirting with the nurses and was all smiles anyone who came by. It was SO GREAT to see him acting like himself!

It was a lot for him to do and he got kinda pooped out afterwards. It took a little doing to calm him down and off to sleep. I hope he has a good night.

Tomorrow they will remove the bandages and the drain tube that has been hanging out of his head, and evaluate whether to send us home Monday or Tuesday. I'm looking forward to being home but hope they don't discharge him until he is feeling a LOT better.

We can't say enough about the fabulous nurses we have had. They are great at what they do and clearly love babies. Or maybe they just love our Lukey Boy. Either way, they are people we would choose for friends, and we are very fortunate to be in their care.

Recuperating

All things considered, Luke is doing really well. Poor little guy has been through an awful lot, but the docs say he is doing great. He spent a fitful night in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) trying to get comfortable. He was on pretty hefty pain meds but was hungry from not eating all day. His throat hurt from the breathing tube that had been inserted for the operation. They elected to give him a unit of my blood after all, but it was his constant snacking that ultimately satisfied him at around 5:00 am, when he finally conked out for a good long sleep.

We came back in around 8:00 and Luke spent a happily uneventful day eating, snoozing and watching football with me. By afternoon he woke up and gave everyone the huge smiles that he is famous for. What a lift!

We alternated between being watchfully concerned for him and for being thankful that he didn’t have the dire conditions that many of the other PICU kids were dealing with. Spend a day in a hospital intensive care unit and you will undoubtedly find yourself counting your blessings. Ours are many.

As expected, Luke’s head and face are swelling. He’s already pretty chubby, but his face seemed to be popping out of his dressings. That is expected to continue through tomorrow, after which is should improve rapidly.

By mid-afternoon, we bade farewell to the PICU team and were moved to a semi-private room on the normal pediatric floor. He’s off his IVs and one by one seems to be losing his tubes and monitors. We have really liked everyone who has been caring or him, but do feel the need to stay on top of his pain management schedule. We were able to hold him briefly, but the tubes and cords that he still has make that a little tough. We think that he should lose the rest of them tomorrow.

They gave him Tylenol with Codeine this evening, but he didn't seem nearly as comfortable as he did with the regular Tylenol. In fact, it became clear that he was fairly uncomfortable. If he could talk, we're guessing that he'd say he had a "splitting headache." They switched back to regular Baby Tylenol and he was snoozing comfortably.

The room has a “bed” for one parent to stay, and looks like Chickee drew the short straw, so she will attempt to stay with him through the night. I hope she gets some sleep.

We are VERY thankful that he is doing well, but nobody would confuse this with a day at the spa.

Luke's Surgery

Luke's cranial surgery was today.

We arrived at 7:30 this morning and we had to spend the day waiting for the first case to be completed, and it was running long. They didn't take him until 3:00 pm. He couldn't eat for most of the day, but we were able to keep him happy for the most part. He was a really good boy.

The surgeons said surgery went great. They finished by around 6:00 and we finally got to see him around 7:30. He was in recovery and then he was moved to the pediatric ICU for the night. His head was bandaged up and he was connected to all manner of tubes and monitors. It was fairly difficult to see him this way, but the nurses assured us that he was doing really well, in fact better than most babies in his situation. He didn't seen to be in pain, but he seemed really hungry and was grumpy at times. Once he got a little snack he conked out and was resting comfortably when they urged us to head back to our hotel and get some sleep.Oh, and it turns out that he didn't need a blood transfusion af ter all, which is really great news.Time for some sleep. And some prayers of thanks.

We are staying at the Hotel Angeleno, and we have special thanks for Thomas the bellman, who took an interest in Luke when we checked in last night. We returned today to find a little gift and a sweet note from him to Luke today. It was really unexpected and much appreciated. Thanks, Thomas!

And thanks to everyone for their kind wishes and prayers for his wellbeing. It's going to be a rough weekend as he recuperates, but he is in good hands.