Happy Holidays!

It was still dark outside when we left for the hospital. There was a light drizzle that made the road reflect the street lights. We passed sleepy shopping strips with their christmas lit stores and deserted parking lots. All the world seemed to be waiting, breath held, for the sun to rise and usher in the first day of our festive season.

It was 5 AM, far too early for the rest of the world. No school buses ran, the traffic was light, rush hour would be leisurely as most businesses wound down for the holiday.

Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 AM, but there were delays and we sat and waited, watching the closed captioned words typing across the silent TV screen in the OR waiting room until nearly 9 AM.

Then they took him away. The procedure was simple. A fissure had opened in his mouth and they went in to attempt to close it. The fissure was allowing everything he swallowed to come back up out of his nose, a great party trick, but a drowning hazard. So they went in and closed it up.

We stayed until late afternoon, then I was allowed to take him home with me.

Today we are preparing for dinner at my mother's, she has made some things just for him to eat. It looks like we will be home for Christmas but since we have hardly had time to shop so we will celebrate late.

I already have the greatest gift I could have asked for. A day of watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life with my baby by my side.

It is a wonderful life.

Happy Holidays to you all.
May your day be blessed with happiness and peace.

dec 20 update

hello, It's O.
I'm sorry for the absence of updates. T of course has hardly been online, and also she has not wanted to update, and so she has asked me not to.

The good news is her son came home, and is so, so happy to be home. It's helped all of them so much to have him at home. It's helped him tremendously psychologically to be home and with his family and amongst familiar things and people.
He doesn't sleep well and at night he has nightmares about being at the hospital.

The whole family decorated the house and they have a christmas tree up. You can see it in the picture.

If you look at the picture you can see some swelling under his eyes. We learned today that he has an eye infection, and some other troubles. This is because of the extensive facial damage he had.

So, he needs surgery again on Friday. This will mean Christmas in the hospital for everyone.

T is very grateful to everyone who has commented and written her. She checks her email every couple of days, and every day I read her comments left for her here or on my blog or elsewhere.
I want everyone reading this to know, and a certain person in particular, that T has received all emails she's been sent, and is very, very grateful for all the wishes expressed for her son--as am I. If she is not in touch with you personally right away it is only because she has so many things to do, and no time to answer any emails at all.

I will be visiting T as soon as possible; unfortunately some events in my own life mean I can't be there now before January 4th, although we had planned for months that I would be there for Christmas. I would come now to be there for the surgery or for Christmas, whatever T needed me for, but I would have to leave after only a couple of days, and we've decided it's better if I come later and then stay for much longer. I can't afford both trips, and if I go later at least I will be there for longer and also be there for her birthday.

Please keep T and her family in your thoughts, and wish them well, especially Friday. Thank you all, for everything.

Love
O

hi

hi, it's O. T hasn't wanted to update, and will probably be mad at me for updating here now. But she did leave a comment on me tonight, and so I wanted to put part of it here for the many people who I know are concerned about her, and would not necessarily be looking at comments on my blog for updates. I speak to her every two hours or so, but obviously we aren't talking about blogging.

I feel bad for doing this without permission, but also, I know many people are concerned about what's going on. I am sure everyone understands that T doesn't herself have time to be in touch yet. This is the relevant part of the comment she left on my blog:

I just wanted to come here and thank everyone who was kind enough to send their healing vibes our way and to those wonderful people who took the time to click the link and leave a comment I want to send a special thank you. I can't begin to express how wonderful I felt as O read your comments and emails to me over the phone. We just got home from the hospital and I had the singular joy of tucking my baby into his own bed. I owe you all a debt of gratitude. I understand that even the atheists were praying for us;) Well it worked! Your positive energy surrounded us and insulated us through this difficult time.

Tonight I am going to just lay down and listen to his breathing, then, in the next day or two, I will be by to comment on you all and answer the emails.

I know she wants everyone to know how much she appreciates your good thoughts for them. I hope she'll forgive me for posting this here. I know people have been looking for updates, but I haven't wanted to post anything without her express permission, and blogging just has not been a topic that we've talked about much. She did leave this as part of a public comment, so that's why I'm posting it.

Thank you all again, for reading and commenting and emailing, and keeping T and her family in your thoughts. She is deeply grateful, as am I.

O

monday update--good news

He's sitting up and they've taken the breathing tube out, awake and conscious and talking. T is at the hospital and has been since he woke up. I'll update more when there's more news, but right now: things are very, very good. Yay!

love
O

saturday update

(read from bottom up)
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7.30pm: he's in the second surgery (the first went well) and this one is going to take 5 or 6 hours. T and her family will be sleeping at the hospital. She sounds completely shattered with exhaustion but also can't sit still. But everything is going very well, as well as it possibly could be, so this is all good news. Thanks again. --O
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5PM: new update:

He's actually going to have two surguries today, and the first is only just now starting. This one is to repair one of the new fractures they discovered: he's broken one of the bones in his arm.

2. after that procedure they will have another one to work on the fractured bones in his face. As mentioned the facial injuries are extensive and this is going to be only the first of the surgeries he'll need for that over the coming months. Again though, as with the arm, this isn't anything like the first surgery which was for immediate life-threatening issues. This will all take a few hours but I will let you know as soon as there's news.

3. As below: he's been awake and talking without being entirely conscious or aware of where he is or what's going on. He keeps asking for T even though she's right there; he just seems to need to keep her in his line of vision and holding his hand. He seems to think he's in his room at home.

thank you to everyone who has commented so far; T will be very happy.

best
O

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saturday 1.30 pm
Hi, it's O. All good news here.

1. T's son is having more surgery this afternoon, to work on some of the facial injuries.

2. His liver had been almost severed, but had been sutured during the first surgery and they say it's healing amazingly well. In general his recovery is just amazingly rapid, because he's so young.

3. He has some more fractured bones than they noticed at first, but they said today that they're no longer worried about any spinal cord injuries.

4. He's awake but not completely conscious. He's moving around and restless, he is sitting up, trying to pull out his breathing tube, and asking for his mother.

I'll post again when he's out of surgery. thanks to everyone

best,
O