We arrived back last night from a four week trip to France with Luke, just in time for the start of the new school year. This is us in the arrivals hall at Gatwick in transit for our flight back to Tampa. Travelling light is not an option with Luke on board, but he did great (and BA looked after us very well). What you can't see here is we are about to discover the Marriot hotel "on-site" at Gatwick is actually a 10 minute hike from the south terminal and all this gear had to come with us. An impromptu in-transit workout for the whole family. For future reference we suggest the Premier Inn! We spent our time with Luke's grandparents in Seignosse, southwest France. Plenty of beach-time, surfing for the teenagers and splashing in the shallows with Luke. It was not easy re-creating Luke's care environment away from home, but Mimi and Baba rose to the challenge (a big thank you to them) and we had two of Luke's nurses with us to help out, particularly on the overnights and when parents had to put in some work time. Everybody was very happy to see him, and the feeling seems to have been mutual. Luke put on a much needed couple of pounds thanks (maybe?) to a French diet. The rest of us did that too, but not so much on purpose. His main problem was difficulty breathing, due to mucous build up in his upper airways, but the vomiting was much less, hence the weight gain. It will be interesting to see if this change persists now we are back home. We are very happy and relieved to have made it out and back without any significant incidents and no apparent ill effects for Luke. Looking forward to settling back into the school routine later this week.
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Luke ParkesLuke is six. He lives in Tampa, Florida. His mother is French and his father English. He has an older sister who is 17 and an older brother who is 14. CategoriesArchives
December 2016
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