The Day After

Mark is presently watching Iron Man, and finally keeping broth and Gatorade down, starting to trend towards normal, though he has been through a few minor hells and is seriously worn out overall.

He is still having issues with short term memory, occasional hallucinations, and motor control. His eyes are still mostly uncooperative, so the staff rounded up a portable DVD player that allows Mark to watch a screen in his lap where his eyes are going instead of trying to manipulate his bed and contorting position to a place where he can see the TV up high on the wall.

He had another MRI today to evaluate his status post-op, and he was out of it enough that we went with full anesthesia, we weren't sure he could stay focused and hold still through it like he had done in the past. It took him two hours after to come out of it, and when he did, he seemed to have completely lost memories of yesterday. That's OK though, because yesterday was legitimately miserable overall.

While he was coming out, he reminded us that even in his fog, he is sharp. I was explaining something to him, when he cut me off and finished my sentence..."OK, Mark, after that we will-" "Rock you!". Haha.

Earliest pathology might come back tomorrow, but confirmation from other sources may be a week or more. What we do know is that the Oncology people are pretty confident in the tumor type now, and I have to be honest, it is not a good situation.

That said, spending time in the PICU is a stark reminder that we do not have the market cornered on trials and tragedies. The two year old girl who was paralyzed and brought in yesterday is just one of many families whose world has been blown up, and the staff here deals with more of these on a fairly personal level every day.

Along with Mark, please keep us, the staff of the RCH PICU, and these other families, in your prayers. God bless.