Well, since I blogged this morning, I don’t have a lot of updates. Patrick’s made steady progress all day. He still needs some oxygen support, but not as much. He slept till noon. He played in his wagon.
It was a good mail day. We got cards from Patrick’s kindergarten, a picture of the Salt Lake Temple from a friend, and a package from Patrick’s therapist and social skills group. Those things came on just on time to lift our spirits. Patrick was confused and sad to wake up in the ICU when he’d expected to go back to his room last night. Brian and I were just tired.
In addition to that, Brian went to Village Inn to pick up a couple of pies I ordered yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner. When I placed the order, they noticed my out of state phone number and asked what brought us to town. Well, when Brian got there to pick up the pies, she came out and explained that she had bought our pies for us. Just the kind of gesture to make the morning after a bad night better.
Patrick had a CT scan this afternoon to look at the current state of his lungs. That scared him and brought some tears… but they let Brian and me hold his hands and we even got some smiles during the test.
It’s been great to see his smiles. I hadn’t noticed how much they had been missing till I saw them come back. He is sore and afraid of being more sore so he hasn’t wanted to walk much. His neck is kinked and he doesn’t want to turn his head. But overall, he’s still feeling and moving better.
After it hurting to talk yesterday, Patrick has stayed with his default method of communication from yesterday. He is waiting for yes/no questions and then answering with sign language. This is better than not talking at all… but I hope his words come back soon.
We were transferred back to the pediatric floor today to a room that is a touch smaller but otherwise a mirror image of our previous room. Since his lungs are still kind of at risk, we are packing smarter this week… keeping things a little more put away and hanging fewer decorations on the walls. But it is nice to have more space and more quiet at least.
Brian’s brother and his family arrived tonight. They are making Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. It was really fun to see them. Patrick was so content that he fell asleep in his wagon holding Mark’s hand. I don’t quite have the heart to move him back to bed yet.
Patrick Hoopes 