Day 326 - May 8 - Bleah

First, let me apologize for not posting yesterday. By the time evening had rolled around, I was...well, let's just say I was under the weather. No need for details - you wouldn't like them anyway.

The last two nights have been fairly brutal, especially for Connor and Cherie. Two nights ago, none of the routines went smoothly and the two of them ended up awake until nearly 0130, then alarms and other needs kept her responding nearly every hour until 0530. Unfortunately, since she was trying to sleep downstairs on the sofa and I had exhaustedly staggered upstairs to sleep earlier in the evening, I was out of it and never heard any of the commotion. I finally heard one of the alarms at 0530 and came downstairs to discover how much she could have used my help all night, so I took over from there to give her a few uninterupted hours of sleep.

After I headed to work, the two of them had a pretty tired day of it until I got home. The first bright spot in the day was that Cherie and Connor loaded up the van alone for the first time, and headed off to the pet store for more fish. They had a good time doing that, and Cherie commented this morning that successfully accomplishing the trip without my presence gave her a new sense of freedom that she didn't have before, so that's good.

The second bright spot yesterday was that Connor was working hard last evening to move, and was able to pull his upper back off of his chair by about an inch, down to the middle of his back (sort of rocking forward, without much of the rocking, if that makes sense). It was hard work but it made him feel good as well. He is continuing his vent weaning work, doing five minutes twice a day off of the ventilator. The more frequent sessions have been noticibly more tiring on him, and he tells us his lower chest (diaphragm?) aches like he's been working out. We tell him he has been! It seems like a good thing that a) he can tell his diaphragm area hurts, and b) that it seems that the muscle is being worked. All that is good!

On top of that, he commented that sometimes he feels the muscles in his legs bunching, and talked at length last night about how he can feel a numbness in his back. Praise the Lord for these small indicators of returning feeling!

Last night, another tough night. This time it was the dog and the neighbor's dogs who went crazy numerous times during the night, barking at something in the backyard. There have been some racoons running around the area lately, so I suspect that's all it was; but try telling that to a knuckle-headed Great Dane/Labrador mix with her hair up!

Hopefully today and tonight will be better. In the meantime, we continue to thank God daily for all of you who are faithfully lifting us up. God bless you.

Eric

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