Bounce

Late last night Mark had a brief good bounce and started cracking one liners and endearing himself further to Liz, the night RN, had her in stitches. I hoped we had turned the corner, but this morning he was very low again.

Nachos, breakfast of champions.

Grandma showed up, but he barely felt up to giving so much as a weak thumbs up to anything. He wasn't drinking enough, so his IV was hooked back up, further dragging on his mood. And since he was hardly eating, the topic of an eventual feeding tube came up. He did ask for nacho cheese lunchables for the umpteenth time, though, so grandma left on a mission.

The day RN, Bonnie, surmised that Mark was trying to access his stoic reserves (which are pretty depleted), and might be trying to pigeonhole his pain. We slipped an unannounced dose of morphine in, and he conked out soon after.

Visit from Debi and Tasha. Sorry, missed picture
opportunities with Darlene, and with the Myers,
who watched Mark so I could run a couple of errands.

When he woke up, there were his nachos, and he tore into it, ate the whole thing. Then a steady stream of visitors started appearing. Mark's highlight was when his MD and Bonnie conspired to creatively circumvent the rules regarding child visitors. You see, non-siblings under 18 are not permitted past the lobby, let alone allowed on any floors above.

Visit from Paul, and Groot.

Jake Rose brought his son Paul, one of Mark's best friends, into the lobby. Bonnie's other patient was reassigned, and Bonnie bundled Mark into a wheelchair and attached his associated tethers, accompanied us to the lobby, and remained on-hand to supervise her PICU patient the entire time. Mark made funny faces with his uncooperative eyes, Paul gave Mark a singing potted Groot, and the boys (and dads) had a delightful visit.

Since the morphine-assisted bounce, along with orchestrating visits and travel out of his room, Mark's mood has been 500% improved again, he is eating and drinking (and had that IV disconnected accordingly), and we will be making sure we stay ahead of his determined attempts to deny his pain this time.

Bonnie our day RN, and Liz our night RN. They have both
been amazing and serving far above and beyond!

Several gifts and cards were delivered today from many friends, thank you so much! At this point, though, I have to request no more deliveries of goodies. We have so much stuff here now we'll never get through it during our stay, and we'll need two trips with wagons to get everything to the car! This is an awesome and heartwarming problem to have.

Mark was recently morphined up again, and will wake to more nachos. It will be a good night.

God bless, thank you so so very much for your prayers and words of support. I read every comment to Mark, so he knows he is loved, and that means so much to us.