Along Comes A Good Day

Yesterday Michelle was sad that I wasn't sad.

There's this difference between us, that she feels things strongly while I remain even-keeled. Sometimes it's a good thing, and she's even been thankful for it in the past few weeks, but yesterday she would have liked me to muster up a little more sorrow. Maybe it was being at the hospital on Christmas Day, or frustration over a long succession of days with little improvement.

Well, nothing gets me down like my wife being down, so she got her wish, I guess. But it was still a good Christmas.

Today, Boxing Day for my fellow Canadians (no, nothing to do with pugilism), was even better. Alicia is off her ventilator for the first time since her surgery, and doing quite well thank you very much. The last couple days her vent support was going down slightly, but not to the point where we thought she would be taken off of it yet. However, she has also grown enough that the tube was no longer the right size. Her trachia was leaking air, which means the ventilator wasn't really giving her as much help as the readings would indicate. So the doctor decided, since the tube has to come out anyway, lets see how she does on the CPAP for a while. That's a nose-mask type thing, if you were wondering. She looks a bit like a fighter pilot with it. Anyway, she's doing well. She likes to keep her mouth open, which is unhelpful, so Michelle suggested a pacifier and it worked like a charm. What a wonderful feeling for the mother to actually be able to do something so helpful for her baby.

Alicia's oxygen support is around 50% now, the same as it was when she was on the ventilator yesterday. The mask gives her air pressure similar to what the ventilator did, but steadily instead of in rhythm. And she has no tube down her throat. She's doing all her breathing herself now, and has had no apnea. Should I say that again? She doesn't forget to breathe! At all!

So naturally, Michelle is bouncing off the walls today. I actually heard her go "doo-doodle-oot-doot-dooo!" like a trumpet call or something, after getting off the phone with the nurse this evening. She'll probably deny that, but oh well. She's thrilled. I'm glad too, but...you know...even keel. No matter how well she does, it's still a long time before we'll be talking about bringing her home. But a good day is a good day.