What Day Is It?

All day long, I have been trying to remember what day it is (day of the week and month). Has it really been a week since that morning when I drove my child frantically to the doctor after he collapsed? At the same time it feels like we have been in the hospital for months. I am getting used to our new routine and so is Margot. The only person that I feel like is left out of the equation is little Owen. He is truly being such a trooper. I got to read him a story, pray with him, and tuck him into bed tonight which was such a treat. He also came to the hospital today to play a little of the Wii we are borrowing. I wonder how Owen is going to change while going through this with us. I find myself contemplating how the Lord will use this circumstance to shape our family. We are noticing Owen has much more confidence. He was never the best at anything, and now he is the best at everything. We know he will be good motivation for Micah on his road to recovery. We also know that Micah was always so sweet to help Owen when he couldn't do something, and I feel very sure Owen will remember this and do the same. These boys love each other. Owen was sad last night leaving the hospital and Micah gave him a toy dinosaur that Grammy had brought for him. Owen has slept with it since then. Oh, how I long to hear my boys running around the house shooting their cap guns.

Today showed a little improvement over yesterday in alertness. Micah held his head up better today, and when I arrived at the hospital this morning he was sleeping in a much more natural/comfortable looking position. He also was awake most of the day. However, his abdomen was quite distended and hurting him a bit, his liver is swollen (the doctors told us this yesterday), and he wasn't talking/swallowing/coughing as well. It seemed as though it was harder for him to make things click. Every doctor who walked in today said he looked better so that is encouraging. It is so hard to tell when you are there non-stop if he is really making any real progress. One thing we are coming to terms with is that this truly may take a long time to recover. There is one neurologist whom I feel like has been really shooting us straight. He said he has seen worse cases of ADEM, but Micah is up there. He has been telling me all week that this will most likely be a long recovery. There has been no talk of going home, and we are waiting to see if they will try another therapy on top of the steroid, or if they will be happy with the progress he is making. He has 3 more doses of the medicine left before we start an oral steroid to taper him back down for the next month or so.

As far as the highlights of our day: Micah laughed a few time tonight. It is amazing the difference we see in Micah after 5 pm when things slow down and everyone is finished coming in and out of our room. He really relaxes and is ready to have fun. We played go-fish (albeit it was very slow and we had to pause indefinitely in the middle) and he looked at some new Where's Waldo books and was locating the characters. After I left, Matt's aunt and uncle stopped by and Matt said Aunt Wendy really had Micah laughing. His laugh is joy for our souls, and we hope to see more of it in the coming days. Micah enjoyed a few bites of chicken soup and milkshake for lunch and dinner, and we are hoping that he can eat a substantial amount tomorrow in hopes of losing the feeding tube. He is really starting to get bothered by it now that he is awake more.

And now, I must say goodnight friends. Thanks for checking on our sweet Micah, for praying, for sending gifts. We are so blessed and thankful. He is hanging in there and so are Mama and Dada. We pray for continued progress and will expectantly wait for the Lord to heal our baby.