Day 52 - July 22, 2008

What a long day today. It's not that the hours were any longer than usual, but the overall activities made it a very busy day.

Kevin did have 400 CCs of fluid drained from his chest cavity this morning. Although the fluid has been sent to the lab, the docs did say that the fluid was a great color and wasn't thick and milky like it would be if it were infected. This, of course, is no guarantee, but it does look promising.

He also had 200 CCs of fluid drained from his head. Hopefully it will start draining again on its own. They have him 'sitting up' in bed thinking that gravity may play a part, so we shall see.

Tim was also introduced and I quietly left the room for a little bit. Our case worker stayed during the visitation and she thought Kevin was trying to say something to Tim so they capped his trach, but he didn't say anything. If he is going to be able to, it is going to take him a while to learn to speak. It's a whole new process with this trach in. I can tell you this though - he does groan and moan a lot and I think that's a good start.

Kev was giving lots of hugs (like normal) to me tonight and at one point I had my head on his shoulder and he rolled his head over and laid it on mine. I told him I loved him and it almost sounded like he was trying to say it back. I am not sure about this though - it could have just been a moan, but still...

It sure is wonderful hearing any kind of noise coming from my son.

So once again, I will ask that everyone keep us in their thoughts tomorrow. Kev is having his lower lid release at 8am. This means that we won't see his eyes for a few days again. It's possible that he may be able to keep his upper lids open, but it's not a guarantee due to the swelling that typically follows this type of procedure. He will also have the bolsters (those mini sleeping bag thingies) attached to his under-eye area.

I wish this could have all been done before he woke up. Now it will be even worse cause he won't be able to see the tv or us or anything. And he will be more aware and possibly be more scared. And it's going to be awfully hard keeping that left hand from yanking one of those things off. I guess I am just going to have to accept that it's now - so buck up, Leslie.

Well, off to bed for me. Gotta get up real early tomorrow.