Since I hadn't started updating the blog at this point three weeks ago, I thought perhaps a bit of reflection might be in order. It's easy to look at the difficulties of life today and wonder if we'll ever adjust, but it also is worth realizing how far we've come in such a short time. The picture on the left I took this afternoon, The picture on the right I took 3 weeks ago today. So many tubes! The feeding tube (yellow tube in his nose) had just been placed. All of the rest of the tubes and cords you can see are related to the ventilator; the intubation tube and the suctioning tube. Almost every chance he got when doctors came in was asking to "take it out", being intubated was miserable! The smaller yellow dotted cord was an addition to be able to monitor his CO2 levels. They had been monitoring them via arterial blood throughout the week and doing blood draws, this allowed them to watch over them with a bit more regularity.
Also three weeks ago today they had also finally arranged a CT. His airway was so precarious with the short and small pediatric tube that they were extremely careful and took an entire team with him to the CT. But they wanted more information to prepare for the trach, the surgery which they did on Mother's Day.
Earlier in the week Chris had written this note.
My heart skipped a beat when I was standing beside Chris holding his hand and I got this message.
At one point in the ICU one of our nurses said "For someone who can't speak, you sure can say a lot with your facial expressions." You should have seen the look on Chris's face when I snuck out to let in his new visitor. Several in my family had been by to visit and I will be forever grateful for all of them and their support for both of us. Having a few from his family, his mother, sister and brother-in-law arrived the next day just before his 2nd surgery, was a huge boost to Chris's morale.
Looking back on all the trials of the past four years we've always tried to stay positive. Amidst all of the setbacks and difficulties, there have been many miracles and blessings. As we work to move forward, one thing that I know will be on both of our minds is just the simple act of being alive, the human body truly is a miracle. Things could easily have turned out much differently last month, we are so grateful that we also were given the gift to be able to still stand together, side by side in this life... and for eternity.