Cincy - Day 1

It has been a long and busy day for all of us. We arrived in Cincy last night during a torrential downpour. Haha...must've known we were coming! We all were anxious and had trouble sleeping. Alas, 7am rolled around and up and at 'em we were. Our hotel is abut 20 min north of the hospital.

The first appointment of the day was with Dr. Franciosi, the GI. We meet with him giving Lucas' background to date. We also met his nurse, Jo Ford and also a member of the clinical research team. We got his weight (37lbs) and height (3ft 4.5in). After a long two hours, we went back to the hotel to regroup, gather belongings for our overnight stay in the hospital.

We arrived on time to the Same Day Surgery unit. As soon as we arrived, we promptly went to registration and into the induction room. We meet with the anesthesia nurse and another nurse. After meeting with them, we were informed that his procedure had been pushed back 40 minutes. About 30 minutes into the extended 40 minutes, we were told it was pushed back an hour. The entire time, Lucas was unusually calm and sedate. He kept saying he was sleepy (at this point he wasn't under any anesthesia) and that he was thirsty. A Child Life Specialist came in and showed him pictures of what to expect. She even brought him a toy to play with. He did for a few minutes. He watched some tv. At one point, he did have a vomit episode of mainly clear. watery substance. He was slightly upset about it and complained that he was thirsty. I held him in the rocking chair in the room and he proceeded to fall asleep in my arms, snoring. The transport guy finally came and with Lucas still asleep, he rode in the bed all the way down to the OR. We were able to go into the OR with him while the sedated him. The sedation was very easy because he was asleep. No hassle no struggle. We then left the OR and went to the waiting room. We weren't in the waiting room long when we got called to the consultation room. Dr. Franciosi came in with pictures and said he does have a mild inflammation in his throat.

About 20 minutes later, we joined Lucas in the recovery room. He was still sleeping and had elbow splints on both arms to keep him from pulling out the impedance probe. The impedance probe was placed to monitor his acid actively and it requires us to spend the night in the hospital. He's been such a trooper. Once he woke, he chugged some apple juice.

We got into our room some time after 4pm. We ordered room service for him. He had a fruit rollup and plain baked potato and some milk. Mimi and PawPaw came to visit. They brought him lots of gifts. Around 8pm he had another fruit rollup and baked potato.

Since being in the room, he's been not quite himself. Just kinda blah. However, he did smile and laugh when a commercial for Rio (the movie) came on TV. We are now relaxing in the room. I'm sitting here next to Lucas in his bed.

Tomorrow will be another big day. I'll try to update again tomorrow night.