Hello Dear Family & Friends!!
Greetings from Corona.... ;o)
Today we finally met with Dr. Starnes, Luca's surgeon at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and we have the date of his surgery now = October 30th/2008! This date is not exactly what we wanted since it's a lot later than we had expected but we were not able to get it any sooner.... all the other dates are already taken by more urgent cases.... this doctor only operates at CHLA on Mondays and Thursdays and to top it off he'll be out for 2 weeks in Oct......anyways...We still do not know the exact time his operation will take place on the 30th but we'll know that the day before when we'll go in for all kinds of exams, tests, etc...
The appointment with the doctor was great, this guy is really a great professional and passed to us a total sence of security, tranquility and firmness that we were truly impressed to see...At one point, he looked straight into my eyes and said very sure of himself: "After this surgery your son will be a perfectly normal child" ... up until that point I was very strong and holding up well, but at that moment I could not resist any longer and started crying.... all I could do was to put my hand over his arm and the only thing that came out of my mouth in a very chocked up voice was: "Thank YOU".... and then I cried some more..... very emotional....
The surgery itself will take approx 3-4 hrs including preparation time and conclusion .... the doctor told us that the surgery itself will take about one hr or hour and a half to complete.... He does approx 50-75 'TOF=Tetralogy of Fallot' surgeries per year and a bunch of others that are related to other heart problems.... Between the 3 heart surgeons of this hospital they realize about 800 heart surgeries per year...really incredible!!! Dr. Starnes is so wonderful that he has a certain heart procedure named after him... it's the "Starnes Procedure"... and there is another one called the "Ross Procedure" that he's the only one that does it.... he's really amazing!!!
The difficult thing was to tour the cardio ICU where Luca will be for the first 2 days.... it was not easy at ALL to see all those little tiny babies with lots of little tubes on them and laying on a hospital bed....terrible terrible terrible.... buuuuuuuuutttttttt, we need to be strong and only have positive thoughts and think that pretty soon this will all have passed and we'll be able to continue with normal life.... They think that in approx 5-6 days we should be able to go home after the surgery... Then after that it will take about another 2 months for his total recovery.....
We thank you all again for all the beautiful messages and prayers that we've been receiving from everybody.....
P.S. - If any of you guys that are local are willing and able to donate blood for Luca's operation please let us know... For some details you can visit:
http://www.childrenshospitalla.org/site/c.ipINKTOAJsG/b.3579263/k.951D/Donate_Blood.htm ... Luca is A+ and he can receive from A+ / A- / O+ or O- . CHLA even has saturday hours to accommodate everyone! Luca will need blood from 3 different people...if you do not have the type that he needs, you can still donate to that hospital since they have tons of other kids who need blood daily too! If you are taking any of the medications on the attached list, unfortunatelly you will not be able to donate blood right now! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! We would be eternally grateful if any of you can help us with blood donation!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of love and warm thanks to all of you!!!!
Here my Mommy and I were in the waiting room at the cardiology department at CHLA... waiting for Dr. Jackie.... she is THE BEST DOCTOR IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!! We LOVE you Dr. Jackie, we don't know how things would be without you in our lives.... THANK YOU SO MUCH for all you do for us.... ;o)
Me and my Brazilian Speedo.... yeah, what do you think... I have the body that I can wear that, ya know???
I love the water.... I could stay here forever... and this floating device that my Daddy got it's even nicer to stay around the pool....
Good thing Nana Silvia is always around with a nice warm towel to wrap me around....
Hey Cooper, what are you doing, buddy? Kicking me already?? .... eheheh... Just kidding, I make funny faces sometimes anyways and stick my tongue out all the time, don't worry...
Here I was playing around with my great twin friends Abby and Cooper.... they were born a week after me.... they are great fun!!! Come back to visit me anytime please.... I love to play with you guys... ;o)
Grandma Candi, Mommy and I.... THANK YOU SO MUCH Nana Candi for coming all the way from Ohio to visit us... We REALLY appreciated your visit.... Next time Grandpa Bob has to come too... WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!! ;o)
My American Nana Candi, my Brazilian Nana Silvia & Mommy....
It was Nana Candi's birthday that weekend too on the 6th of September.... HAPPY B-DAY!!!!! .... we were SO happy you were here to celebrate it with us.... what an honor.... We also celebrated Uncle Abdi's b-day which was on the 2nd of September...
Tia Christa and Tio Will were also here with us for a nice BBQ and b-day cake.... Thank you guys for coming all the way from Santa Monica... ;o) Tio Will, it was great meeting you...
Some shots of me and Nana Candi at our house....
Me and and the 2 Nanas... The American one and the Brazilian one..... the Italian one was in Italy! Gosh, I have so many Nanas...eheheh... lucky little guy...
Here we were still at the hotel just waking up and getting ready to go to Sea World...yay, my first time there.....jpg)
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I slept during most of the shows but that's OK... one day I will enjoy them better...
Nana Silvia and the flamingos...
This was the first time I actually went to the movies too.... We went to see ELMO at a 3D theater they had there and I LOVE IT.... I watched the whole thing very quietly and super enjoyed the show even though it splashed water on our faces at one point.... I behaved like a big boy... ;o)
Oooops, girls, cover your eyes...naked guy on the screen....
y bear friend Tiao is always with me... preparing to go to the beach...
My first time ever at the beach.... actually I've been to the beach before but this was the first time in the water for me.... it was so nice and warm, beautiful afternoon too...
A nice lonnnnng nap with Nana on the beach....
When we got back to the hotel these hot air balloons were being set up right in front of our hotel room... very nice to see them take off so close....
