Luca is doing WONDERFUL!!! Happy Halloween to Everyone...

Good evening to everyone... now 11:20 pm on Halloween, Friday 31st Oct/2008. Gaetano and I started the morning again at 5 am and going to the hospital by 6:30 am this morning.... we arrived there Luca was running a little fever but it's normal after such a big surgery like this... Then a bunch of doctors came around him and discussed a bunch of things that went straight over my head but all I needed to know was obviously one thing: that he was doing GREAT!!! They told me that he is in beautiful shape and that he is a very strong boy... He's 9 kgs now and 72 cm long... never had a cold, never a runny nose, never nothing thank Goodness, so he went into surgery in excellent health and condition which is helping him a lot now... Keeping him in a "bubble" all these 8 1/2 months paid off!!

This afternoon they took him off the breathing machine (he only has a small oxygen tube now on his nose), his urine tube is also out, heart medications are to a minimum and his oxygen level is around 98 - 100%.... so all great news and off to a very fast recovery... Amazing how resilient kids are!!!!!

He wakes up on and off, looks around, follows sounds and looks at his Elmo....his eyes and look are still a bit distant but we know he recognizes us, our touch and our voices...but he has not smiled just yet... when I brought out Elmo he managed to show us 1/2 a smile but not quite a full one yet....our baby Luca is little by little coming back to being himself...Around 7 pm tonight they already fed him a clear liquid thru a regular bottle by mouth.... poor thing, they could only give him 2 oz and he started getting frustrated and grunted a little because he wanted more.... he normally drinks 4-6 oz of formula very fast in one feeding so 2 oz were not even good enough for a snack...but nurse told us that they cannot give him too much yet because he will vomit it all up... Later tonight they will also give him some formula too to see how he reacts...

Tomorrow they will be probably already transferring him to the 6th floor and out of the ICU. Great news again because over there we are one step closer to home... They are also saying that if he continues doing great as he is maybe by Monday we can go home already.... It was so wonderful to hear that.... every doctor that comes around to ck on him says that he is doing great! That's all we care to know...

The CTICU at CHLA is really amazing... ALL nurses and doctors are outstanding professionally and as personally too.... they all have such GIGANTIC hearts and treat us and especially Luca with the best of care possible... Luca is really in great hands...

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYONE'S MESSAGES.... VERY EMOTIONAL AND HEART TOUCHING.... Like my brother keeps calling him now: "LUCA BRAVE HEART".... indeed he has a brave heart now... always had but particularly now....

If anyone local would like to visit we can probably have you guys come over now... he should be on the 6th floor already by tomorrow morning... visitation hours are 9am-9pm every day... You can give us a call or just show up if you prefer.... we would LOVE to see familiar faces and smiling faces too! ;o)

Below are some photos of these last few days...

Day before we came here (10/28). My father had brought him this little outfit.... it is from my father's favorite soccer team in Brazil....the team is from Sao Paulo and it's called Corinthians...

Vai la' Coringao... o simbolo esta' bem no peito bem do lado do coracao do Lulu, ajuda ai' esse coracaozinho valente a ficar otimo logo.....
PEDRO TIRABOSCHI = Essa foto meu pai encomendou especialmente pra voce...ehehhe.... Coringao no peito e de volta pra primeira divisao...ehehhe....beijos!!

These 2 above were also taken on the 28th with his 1st Halloween custome... Obviously he was not happy with it... well, I think because it was a VERY warm custome and that day we had basically summer temperatures of 95F....hehehe.... no more warm customes in California... with this global warming these poor kids have to be in tang tops for Halloween...ehheheh

Day before surgery (10/29).... taking a bath with antibacterial soap in our room at the Ronald McDonald's House... He LOVED that bath... he stayed there and played around for a lonnnng time...
This was around 5:30am morning of surgery (10/30)... As you can see, we were in good spirits and trying to smile a bit.... Lulu was just as playfull as ever...

Here we had just done a couple more of the pre-op exams and he was already wearing his hospital PJ's....

This one was taken while we were waiting for the nurse to take him to the OR (operating room)... he was already "happy" and groggy here during his zen moment...very cute... ;o)

Lulu and his great friend Elmo at CTICU...These 2 were taken today (10/31) after the breathing machine came off and the oxygen tube went in... He was still very groggy today but already having pretty long periods of being awake... even managed to say "mammah" once... not that he knows that I am his mamma already but I got very happy to hear it anyways....

VERSAO BRASILEIRA - Ola' pessoal... Luca esta' OTIMO... os medicos nos disseram q ele esta' se recuperando SUPER bem, super rapido e ele e' um garotao bem forte... Hoje ele ja' esta' com uma carinha bem melhor, ja' tiraram o tubinho do nariz q ia ate' o pulmao (nao sei o nome em portugues) e agora so' esta' com o tubo de oxigenio pra ajudar, mas ele ja' esta' respirando sozinho... tiraram a sonda da urina, ja' diminuiam os medicamentos pro coracao, e o nivel de oxigenacao do corpo esta' entre 98 - 100%...tudo indo super bem e amanha ja' vai sair da UTI e ir pro quarto normal... se tudo continuar bem assim (e vai continuar) eles estao falando q acham q ja' vamos poder ir pra casa na 2a feira.... Maravilha, ne'? Ja' deram um pouquinho de liquido pra ele hoje na mamadeira e agora de noite iam dar um leitinho tambem... Ele ainda esta' meio grogue mas as vezes acorda, nos olha, resmunga (pois ja' quer sair dali, tenta sentar, etc)...ainda com um olhar um pouco distante mas da' pra perceber q ele nos ve, nos reconhece tb pela voz e tato.... mto legal... Ate' ja' falou um "mammah" hoje q foi bem fofinho mesmo ele nao sabendo o q esta' falando eu ja' achei q foi o maximo.... Essa UTI e' o maximo....todas as enfermeiras, medicos, staff sao maravilhosos.... dao uma atencao enorme pra gente e especialmente pro Lulu... SUPER obrigada de novo pelas mensagens q continuam nos chegando...bem emocionante e voces continuam tocando nossos coracoes... Como disse tio Kiko agora o nome do Luca e':

Luca Coracao Valente.... sempre foi coracao valente mas agora ainda mais...hehehe...beijos pra todos!

LUCA's SURGERY WAS A SUCCESS!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSS......

Hi my dear family and friends.... Uffffffffff..... this day is finally almost over.... it REALLY feels right now as if a BIG HUGE HEAVY CARGO TRAIN passed over all of us here today.... but the good thing is that this train passed and now it keeps leaving us more and more by the hour...

Sorry this update is only coming now.... Gaetano forgot his laptop at the hotel since we had sooo much on our minds this morning.... tomorrow we'll take it and at least I can type a couple words a bit earlier...

Our day began at 5 am when we woke up (actually I slept from 2am to 5am only since I kept doing things, reading last minute instructions, feeding Luca almost every hour, etc)... by 6:30 am we were already at the surgery admitting area where we put on him a cute blue hospital pajama... they did a few other last minute exams, took more blood AGAIN (and this time the DARN nurse could not find his vain and stuck the needle in one arm incorrectly and no blood was flowing...he was screaming and yelling at this time already and my mom and I almost about KILLED that nurse...). After that they separated us from my parents and took Luca, Gaio and I to a waiting area where a bunch of other kids were also laying in hospital beds waiting for their surgeries.... heart breaking to see kids of ALL ages and God knows with what types of surgeries ahead of them today...

We waited there for a little while and Luca started getting a little fussy at this point (hungry, sleepy, tired and all) so they decided to give him the "happy-liquid" that I mentioned yesterday....not a happy- pill as I had said of course he is so little for a pill... I actually took a happy pill myself (Valerian Root based...ehehhe) to calm me down a little and it worked.... even tough I think I probably needed something a LOT stronger, but something it did...eheheh.... After he took this liquid he started being very zen and funny...his little eyes were 1/2 shut and he kept playing with his hospital bed...very calm and totally easy going... We talked to him, explained what was going to happen to him, and touched him a LOT...and of course we told him several times that we love him SO much... difficult moment again...

Finally this one nurse came with the anesthesiologist doctor and talked to us about how things would proceed from now forward... At around 8:20 am we picked him up and went together to a long hallway where the nurse said, OK now it's time for me to take him.... GOSH, THAT WAS REALLY hard as I had antecipated it.... but he made us laugh already there grabbing the nurse's green cap and mask so tight and would not let go...even tough he was quite groggy he was still very strong as usual.... Right after Gaetano and I left him, we walked like 2 zumbies across those hallways without having a clue where we were going....all we both could do is just cry, cry and cry.... another VERY HARD moment!!!

We finally found our way around and found my parents again... at that point Michael Smith, Gaio's 1st boss here in California, was also here to keep us company... His presence was great because he distracted us quite a bit throughout the whole surgery... MIKE, THANKS FOR COMING ALL THE WAY FROM ESCONDIDO AND FOR BUYING US COFFEE TOO!!!! You really did your good action for the year!!

At 11:15 am we were walking around the cardiac dept again and we see a hospital bed coming out of the OR area... and guess what, on that bed was our sweet Luca.... perfect timing and we were able to see him for 5 seconds and the nurses told us we could touch him... This was a VERY emotional time for all of us again... Then we waited, waited and waited approx 2 more hrs and they finally allowed Gaetano and I to go into the ICU to stay there with him for a while.... We did and we stayed there a long time with him... DIFFICULT, DIFFICULT and more DIFFICULT! He has TONS of little tubes coming from everywhere on his little body... very sad to look at him.... and the incision is quite big too...but it's all good, who cares about the incision, right? His heart is repaired now and like my brother Tio Kiko said, he's got a BRAVE HEART now!!! Our nurse at the CTICU was amazing and we felt really comfortable to be there with him....we was doing great, his numbers were great, oxygen level was wonderful and everything was perfect... What a relief...

So then we basically stayed at the ICU at his bed side the rest of the day... Finally now at around 9pm we came back to the hotel... we left him there with a very good and stable condition with his night shift nurse.... She is also wonderful...we are in GREAT hands at the ICU...

Now I am so tired and don't know how I have energy to type all this...but like I said, when I type this journal it helps me to destress a lot... Going now to call the nurse to see how he is doing again and if I can sleep a bit more today...

THANK YOU FOR ALL the prayers, thoughts, messages, emails, candles lit, etc etc.... We DEFINITELY FELT THEM COMING and they gave us such an internal strength!!! And they ALL worked too, BABY LUCA IS DOING GREAT!!!!! :o) ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o) Love to ALL...

VERSAO BRASILEIRA SUPER rapida.... Estamos nos sentindo como se um TREM de CARGA ENORME tivesse passado em cima de todos nos hoje....mas passou e esta' passando cada vez mais... a cirurgia foi realmente um sucesso....tudo esta' otimo, Luca esta' super bem, reagindo mto bem de tudo... Foi MUITO duro ve-lo com mil tubinhos por todo o corpo e uma cicatriz enorme no peito....mas isso realmente e' o de menos ja' q ele esta' tao bem e agora com seu coracao consertado e funcionando perfeitamente.... MUITO obrigada por todas as oracoes, mensages, emails, e velinhas acesas de todos...tudo isso funcionou pra VALER e nos deu realmente mta forca interna.... Muito amor pra todos!!!

And here we are....

Hello to our lovely family & friends.... ALL OF YOU GUYS are making me cry right now... But it's all good, it's a good kinda cry, the one coming straight from the heart from seeing SO MUCH support, prayers, and wonderful words from all of you.... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the comments, the emails, the phone calls, etc!!! We don't know what we would do without all of you guys in our lives...Right now here it's almost 11:30 pm and I am here sitting on a beautiful computer room at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald's House... This place is AMAZING!!! It's a house/hotel type thing sponsored by McDonald's and several other people and entities..unbelievable.... brand new (just opened in July), super clean, modern, very cheerful, all decorated for Halloween and super comfortable too... It would be very nice if any of you guys could please go to McDonald's in the near future and order anything to eat or drink...that would be wonderful... That would help us support this great place here and others throughout the world in some way or another...thank YOU!!!

Ok, so tomorrow on 10/30 Luca's surgery is scheduled for 8:30am L.A. time... we need to be there by 6:30am to prep him, etc...They are going to put him on a hospital gown, put a little ID bracelet on him and he's ready to go... we'll take pictures of all this because it's all happy times...or another moment of "Good Times With Luca"..... ;o) The "only" difficult thing will be to keep him without food on his stomach for quite some time... but they told me they can give him a "happy pill" so he can relax a little and get less nervous if he's too hungry while he waits... And we don't like to see Luca hungry, things can get ugly if he is...eheheh...

Another VERY difficult moment I hear, it's when we need to hand him to the nurse that will take him to the operating room... I am a bit afraid of that moment to be honest... but I need to keep strong... I am surprising myself actually and I am keeping A LOT stronger than I thought... Thank YOU for those praying for me to keep strong, it's totally working.... at least for now... eheheh ;o)

Today they did all kinds of exams, blood tests and all (I already cried right there just seeing him cry with that needle on his little tiny arm... heart breaking, but then again, I was strong after that...)... everything went great, he's been REALLY healthy all these 8 1/2 months so this helps a lot... so we are good to go... He should be in for 4-5 hours and then he goes to the CTICU where we'll be able to finally see him....but the nurses and doctors should come out every hour or so to give us updates... These for sure will be the LONGEST 4-5 hrs of our lives....

Tomorrow night Gaetano and I will sleep close to him at the ICU... I am sure we'll find a couple minutes to update this blog again so you guys can know what's going on...

Kisses and lots of love to all.... Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the love and support!!

VERSAO BRASILEIRA... Herbert Richards....heheheh...isso parece filme de sessao da tarde no Brasil, ne'???ehehheh.... Aqui vai uma pequena traducao mto rapida pra aqueles q nao entenderam meu bla bla bla acima.... ;o) Primeiramente SUPER OBRIGADA por todo o apoio e suporte q temos recebido de TODOS voces... isso nos tem feito mto bem e continuamos fortes devido ao carinho de todos, das mensagens, emails e telefonemas q temos recebido... Amanha a cirurgia do Luca sera' as 8:30 da manha horario aqui de Los Angeles, vamos ter q chegar la' as 6:30... Vai ser "so'" duro mante-lo sem comer por tanto tempo...A cirurgia deve durar umas 4-5 horas....serao as 4-5 horas mais lonnnnnnnnngas de nossas vidas!!! Depois disso ele vai pra UTI e fica la' por uns 2 dias... Eu e Gaio vamos dormir por la' pertinho dele na UTI amanha e depois com certeza.... mas vamos achar um tempinho pra escrever um pouquinho neste blog pra voces saberem as noticias... Um beijo ENORME pra todos com mto amor!!!

We Are Leaving for the Hospital Tomorrow Already...

Hello everyone....

Today we are here preparing the last minute things to take to the hospital... It's been a VERY tough week already for us and the worst is yet to come.... Actually the best is yet to come because our baby is finally getting cured this week....that's the way we have to think, otherwise we go crazy...but nonetheless, it's SUPER hard for us and we cry often already... But it's all good, we are keeping strong and keeping our faith.... We are keeping strong because of ALL of you sending us such beautiful messages, phone calls, emails, etc-etc... That's what keeps us going... THANK YOU!!! We will keep this blog so that everyone can read our daily updates while we are at the hospital... we might post some pictures too... Tomorrow is his pre-op day and he'll have exams, x-rays, blood tests, etc to do... and then we'll finally know the exact time of his surgery on Thurs... I'll post another blog message to let everyone know about the time... We will be staying at the Ronald McDonald's House next to the hospital... We hope to be home in approx 4-5 days...

My parents are also here from Brazil to help us, Thank Goodness... ;o)

We really appreciate ALL your thoughts and prayers and PLEASE keep them coming...

For those who wish to visit us while we are at CHLA, it's going to be probably better around the 1st or 2nd of November more or less... later we'll let you know details on that also...

Love to everyone & God Bless!

The Fragoso & Santospirito Families ;o)

BLOOD DONATION was a success!!!

We want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts to the LOVELY people that took the time and made the effort to go all the way to L.A. to donate blood to our sweet baby Luca!!! WE DON'T HAVE WORDS FOR YOU GUYS... JUST TO SAY THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH!!!! You guys are blood related to us now and WE WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL TO YOU....

You WONDERFUL people were (in order of donation):

LIGIA APPARICIO
FRANKIE SAMA
GRAZIANO PESTARINO
ABDI & CHRISTINA KATOULI
GREG & CHERYL BAUMEISTER
JAKE KAUFMAN

You guys are THE BEST!!!! LOVE YOU 4EVER... ;o) ;o) ;o)

Luca turned 8 months old!! ;o)

No pictures for October just yet... Mommy still has to download them... she's too busy these days!