It’s been a few weeks now and Luca is starting to get back to normal. His arm is looking really good. He had his bandages turn up yesterday to be worn for the next few years. So far so good. He loves the trucks and planes on them.
I truly want to reach out and thank every single one of you for the help our little family has received. I have been blown away with the messages, support, donations, general help and so much more.
Nobody wishes to see their child hurt and it has rocked Amber and Myself in ways I couldn't expect.
To the community of people that have helped, know you have made a difference to us in this dark time.
From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you all so much.
Lucas life has been changed hugely now and unfortunately nothing will ever be the same for him. Over the next few years he will be going through constant checkups to ensure the operations that he received heal correctly. He will be in an arm bandage for the foreseeable future, and for a 2 year old, that gets changed regularly as trying to tell a small boy to keep that clean is impossible. The Main thing now is that we keep doing what we can for him and try our best to ensure he heals.
This week Luca was discharged from Waikato Hospital to the Tauranga area health department. Today he had the final bandages removed from his arm. The nurse was very happy with the skin grafts and confident that they have taken well. This is a huge relief to Amber and I as the last 3 weeks have been horrible to go through as parents. He will still have to be off daycare for a while yet until the larger areas heal more. His main problem now is keeping it moisturised so it keeps from itching. All in all, Luca is getting back to his normal cheeky self. He can now run around and play with his big sister and now only requires the many supplements that will help boost his recovery. We still have a long way to go but hopefully the next week of appointments go just as well as todays one did.
So Luca was lucky enough to be able to come home for this weekend. We have to take him back on Tuesday to Hamilton from Papamoa as they can’t do the dressing changes here for some reason. It’s insane how 5 seconds can change your life. Luca is in the process of taking a huge amount of supplements and medication to make sure he gets the best chance to heal. Amber is having to close up the coffee shop now as he is no longer able to attend daycare for the next few month due to the risk of infection. That now means we will be down to pretty much a single income. The donations will be a huge help when it’s paid out later this month to cover the cost of supplements is ACC do not cover those and other requirements.
Amber and Luca have been released on ward leave today, thankfully she has family in Hamilton to stay with as she is still bound to Waikato hospital until early next week at least. Unfortunately on the same day we were notified that our house were living in is going on the market. We are hoping the blows stop coming soon. Overall Amber is relieved to be out of the hospital and can focus on her and Lucas mental and physical health. There are more visits scheduled for Thursday and Monday and we’re hoping he will no longer need to be under anaesthetic and will need only sedation going forward.
So after being stuck in a bed all week Luca was allowed out of the room for an hour to enjoy some food at the hospital cafe. As you can see the little man was super happy to get out finally. For the last couple of days Lucas Nan has been visiting to help out with and along with other family members, it has been a huge help for Amber who is there looking after him. They had a late night due to the IV coming out again.
Luca was booked for another operation on Tuesday but due to a couple of problems, that has been pushed to today. From what I can tell all has gone well but he has another one on Thursday booked in.
Luca slept most of the day after his operation so that meant he was up most of the night unfortunately. Today Amber got a bit of a break away from Luca while Lyn was able to look after him. He’s no longer on the drip so has a bit more mobility now. Hard thing is trying to keep a 2 year old on a bed all day.
Message from Amber - Skin graft took well. They're happy but little man won't sit down and has a sore bum. Very rare for him to lie down for me. He's quite irritable. They don't have him connected to a drip at the moment, just dealing with oral pain meds. They're looking at the dressings on Tuesday.
Luca will now require x3 types of multivitamins daily that aren’t funded for a minimum of x3 months to help skin grafts and wounds heal. He’s had another hard day and so has Amber. Because he’s bed bound it’s hard for him not to want to get up and run around. Amber has been doing a great job but is very tired and looking forward to a sleep tonight.
Luca made it through another night. He’s being slowly taken off the drip and given different pain medication. They area they took the skin graft from is giving him issues now as he can’t get comfortable in any position. Amber and Lynn are doing a great job keeping Lucas occupied and calm.
Luca had a ruff night after his first skin graft. It’s really hard because he just wants to be able to play and do normal stuff. Today Nan and Amber managed to get him some magnets to play with like he has at home.
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Today Luca had his second operation in two days today to clean more of the damaged areas and do the first skin graft. He has another week before they can don anything for him as they need to see how his little body reacts. He has been moved to the high watch area so is in the best hands now.
