Day Two

Hospital time passes like dog years. Although we have only been here two days, it seems like far longer.  Clay's recovery has continued to progress nicely.  Yesterday we moved out of the PICU into a regular pediatric room.  Much better sleeping with the lights out (mostly), fewer machines beeping, and check-ins every four hours instead of hourly.  Today started at 6:45 a.m. with his surgeon doing rounds.  The day quickly picked up with subsequent visits from: physical therapy (PT), neurology, oncology, radiology, pain management, and the librarian (who brought Clay two books in braille). Oh, one more: A volunteer with child life, who came in to play music with Clay while I took a quick shower (clearly this was his favorite, see:). 

The best news of the day, however, came with PT.  Clay stood up, walked around the room, and sat in a chair for 45 minutes, with not too much pain.  He was so proud of himself, and so happy to be back upright after the forced 24 hours flat. 

After this success they pulled him off the morphine drip and moved his meds to oral, so he also got to lose two of the IV's in his hands, further increasing his joy.  We had a nice visit with my Mom, but then we missed dinner since Clay got called for his post-op MRI.   This was no fun as we made him do it without sedation, and it was uncomfortable lying flat again in the scanner for close to an hour  But, our pal Laura had provided Clay with a CD of his top 12 songs, and so he powered through the scan listening to this.  (At one point he yelled from the scanner to the technicians "My mix tape is over, please start it again!") 

Tomorrow should be a quieter day since it is Saturday.  There is some talk of us going home in the next few days, which would be just fine with us.  Thanks for all your kind notes, prayers, and support.