Lucas Camilo

On Friday Lucas was back at the hospital for surgery to put tubes in his ears.  We hadn’t mentioned this lately because in theory it’s a minor surgical operation, but nevertheless we were a little nervous in the days leading up to our latest trip to Children’s.  As it happened, we had to get up at 5:00 am to get there by 5:45, and believe it or not the waiting room at the surgical unit was already half full with families when we arrived.  Despite the early wake-up Lucas was in good spirits as we sat around for an hour before being led back to fill out paperwork, sign releases, and prep with the doctors.

In addition to the surgery on his ears to drain fluid and put tiny tubes in place, Lucas was also there to have a bronchoscopy to check out his airway.  The latter procedure was tacked on after Lucas had some strange breathing episodes back in May, and was to be preformed by our friendly Greek Pulmonologist known as Dr. K.  The only problem was that as the time for Lucas’s surgery arrived neither the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor or Dr. K were anywhere to be seen.  So we sat around for another hour getting entertained by an anesthesiologist with a very dry sense of humor until finally both docs showed up and we were ushered out so they could begin the procedures.

Not long thereafter we were called back to the recovery room with reports that both operations had been successful.  Lucas was still a little groggy when we got to see him, but in surprisingly good spirits once again despite the mild drugs he was administered.  The ENT doctor told us that he had removed a significant amount of fluid from behind his right ear and a smaller amount from behind the left, and that the tubes should help prevent buildup from happening again, and thereby improve his hearing.  Dr. K spent some time explaining his discoveries from the tiny camera that went down Lucas’s airway, concluding that the breathing issues were likely related to some occasional collapse in his lower airway, something not unusual with kids who have trachs.  We still don’t know exactly why Lucas has the occasional breathing episodes, but we had a grand time talking World Cup soccer with Dr. K and catching a chunk of the Brazil/Netherlands game as Lucas recovered.

Lucas has recovered well from his surgery and hasn’t even needed to take any Tylenol for pain.  Today we decided to wake him up early again and get outside before the temperature started shooting up into the 90’s.  We strolled out to our favorite spot along Rock Creek and settled in for a breakfast picnic.  Lucas played and napped and stared up at the trees swaying in the wind overhead.  Then we decided to give him a chance to feel the cool, fresh water in the creek (ok, it’s a little too urban to be “fresh” but no one was drinking it so it wasn’t so bad).  Burke waded into the water and dipped Lucas’s feet in up to his knees… and he got angry! Lucas loves a good bath but it turns out he’s not quite ready for the cold water yet.

We spent a glorious three hours in the park and Lucas only had a slight sunburn upon returning home.  We took some naps, had a pleasant afternoon around the apartment, and prepared for gramma Susan to roll into town for another visit.