Day 818 - Aug 25, 2010

So today I was on the phone in the little anteroom that leads into Kevin's hospital room and I heard Kev ring the bell for the nurse. I heard Sue say 'what do you need Kev?" and then he replied (and you might want to sit down for this) "I WANT A PAIN PILL PLEASE"!!! Say what?! When did Kevin become able to string 6 words together without even one nudge from me?

I had my friend hold on and I went out to the nurse's station and I said "Sue - did Kevin just say a whole sentence to you?" and she was already exclaiming to everyone that he had and all the nurses and everyone were just clapping and so excited. When I told them I hadn't even said it first for him to repeat and he just completely said it on his own we were all beside ourselves in excitement! Holy crap!

This plate is gonna make such a difference!!

I thought this yesterday because when Kevin was just back from ICU and still pretty much sleeping, just out of the blue he said "I want strawberry milk". Up until then he had never said the word "want" without a nudge of some sort - usually me saying the whole word a couple of times to get him to say it.

So then tonight my friend Mary Jo facebooked me and said that Kev needed to practice saying her name. Well the first time I said say "Mary Jo" he did. So we called her and he said "HI MARY JO" right off the bat and then she put her little boy Mathew on and Kevin said "HI MATHEW".

I'm tellin' ya - this boy is gonna talk someday. Sooner than I originally thought too.

And today we took off the bandages. I took a couple of photos with my phone, but they are blurry so I will try to get some more tomorrow. To be honest, Kevin is in a lot of pain and not up for pictures. For some reason, the neurosurgeon took away the IV pain meds this morning and he is suffering. I talked to the doc about getting him back on something, but the order was written for Morphine once every two hours. Morphine only lasts about 15 minutes so Kevin is really hurting. I don't think the surgeon realizes that Kevin has quite the tolerance for narcotics as he's been on them for 2 years or so.

Anyway, he looks pretty good, but I will admit that I thought it would be better. He still has that indent where it was the last time - it's just not as pronounced. I am going to wait and see if there is still some swelling that may change the appearance after it goes down, but the neurosurgeon already discussed taking fat from Kevin's belly and injecting it into that area. Geez.

I was under the impression that the plastics guy was going in at the end of the surgery and cleaning his appearance up, but that didn't happen. Maybe I was mistaken in thinking that? I don't know...but I really wanted near perfection and we didn't get it. Maybe I just expect too much...

But I guess it really doesn't matter what I think. It's all about what Kevin feels and so far I think he is happy with it. I am hoping he feels better tomorrow and can get up and really take a good look at himself.

And now I am going to bed. I came home early last night and dropped my head on my pillow immediately. I barely remember even getting into bed and I slept hard until 10:00 this morning. YAY!!