Walking Spirit

Just briefly wanted to let you know that surgery is actually going to be on Tuesday-that's a good thing because that means he was bumped because he's no longer the most critical. Sounds strange doesn't it? He continues to be alert and is asking a gazillion questions. Jeremy is very uncomfortable and wants so badly to be able to drink a Coke and hold his cat among other things. He is anxious to spend time with Mom and Dad but has found it to be a bit stressful to have other visitors. He hasn't slept in a couple of days and he is very, very tired. Don't get me wrong-that doesn't mean that you can't come by-but he may not want to see visitors or the nurses may not think that he is up to having visitors in his room. Please don't be offended by this-he is just trying so hard to sort things out-and he feels extra rotten due to his fever.

He did get to see Madeline today-which was a big surprise-and called for some quick thinking on Mommy's part as I hadn't actually told her all of the details about his legs. We all thought that we had more time before this would happen. We actually had a decent talk about it in the car on the way to the hospital-and she had a funny look on her face-when I asked if she was OK she said yes, but that she was sad for Uncle Jeremy. We talked about the doctors making him new legs someday and the fact that he is still the Uncle Jeremy that she loves. The nurses say that he speaks of her constantly so they allowed him to come out in his big chair and see her for an extremely short amount of time. Hopefully, both Jeremy and Madeline realize that this won't be happening each time she is at the hospital-they just made an exception on a quiet Sunday morning. She, of course, played shy and was very quiet with him-but I think it did his heart good just to see her-and I think it helped her to realize that he really is still here. He's been shut behind those closed doors for 5 weeks now-that can be very strange to a four year old mind-it's strange to my 33 year old mind.

It sounds like the doctors will be doing a swallow test on Jeremy tomorrow-although we're not really sure how that will work when his jaw is wired shut. Hopefully this will show that he doesn't have difficulty swallowing and soon he can get a few sips of that Coke he wants so badly. The infectious disease team is also going to do some type of test on his stomach and gall bladder to see if that infection is hiding in one of those areas-so although he doesn't have surgery tomorrow it sounds like he will be busy.

I'll let you know tomorrow about the timeframe of Jeremy's surgery on Tuesday. Your prayers are working-keep it up.