"Today was a good day"

Hi All,

I know alot of you are following the blog and I'm probably not feeding your blog appetite with these once-a-day entries. I hope to get more than one post up in a day but its just been kinda draining round here lately. But that being said, like the famous rapper/actor Ice Cube once said "Today was a good day"! Colby did awesome today. NO SEIZURES! Yes we can officially say no seizures today. Now the only thing we knowingly have to thank for that is the medicine. The same medicine that knocks Colby on his cute little bootie every time they give it to him. He's in a daze but as his body gets used to it he'll react better and better to it. He was the most active and the most himself he's been since Thursday. He's been looking around, playing, cooing and babbling and giving us some hints of the oh-so-cute smile we so badly want to see. He's getting there.

So we spoke to the Neuro team again today and they really didn't have too much new info. They did have Colby's lactate test come back today and that was normal which was a huge relief. The past two lactate tests were high and if this one had come back that way they would've begun some metabolic testing. Those metabolic diseases can be really rough from what I've read. I'm quite proud of myself, I've completely stayed away from the internet diagnosis. As tough as its been, I refuse to freak myself out with all the awful things you can read about when you type a medical term into google. I say this to you as I did break this rule last night when I decided to look up Metabolic disorders. I really knew nothing about this topic and so I wanted to get a brief intro. I read a little here and there and then stopped. No more, thanks. So Colby will be getting another MRI early next week and that will really give us some info. See, when you have a brain injury show up on an MRI and you do a follow-up MRI too soon it can show a false positive and show no injury, giving you false hope, then 3 days later you'd do another MRI and the injury would show up again. The brain is a weird area and it can look as though its healed itself when it really hasn't in this small little window after an injury occurs. Anyways with this next MRI the Neuro team (Dr. Hoban, Dr. Mott and Dr. Foy )will be able to tell if the injury is progressing in the way a hypoxic injury should, if so we'll continue on that path. If it doesn't show this then we may need to focus on rare metabolic disorder testing or rare genetic disorder testing. But we'll head down that road only if we need to.

That's about it around here, nothing too much! :) We moved for the fourth time, still in the ICU just a few beds down. They like us around here. Colby is very popular. :) We should be in general care Wednesday, just waiting for a bed. I won't lie these past 7 days have drained us. Between this, looking for new day care (which we found at a great place in Livonia) and some other fun stuff, I think we're spent. Jess has been a superstar again, just like last time. Juggling numerous tasks and handling it all with ease. Not to mention we've been living in what constitutes a space the size of a bathroom for the past 7 days. We haven't gotten on each others nerves too bad! Well I'll be heading back to work on Thursday, just going to take Wednesday to make sure we have another good day here and then Jess will be holding down the fort here in general care. I'll be coming back up right after work.

One last thought, I was chatting with the dad of the family we met back when we here for Colby's heart surgery, the family from Kansas who are here for their sons second heart surgery. (Side note: I still cannot fathom that I'm seeing these people again. This is like the coincidence of a lifetime. I mean I hoped to keep in contact with them, but knew it probably wouldn't happen and here we are, just freaking crazy!) We were talking about how many amazing things go on in here. I know I've written about it before but it is mind-blowing. Yes, I know it goes on in every hospital and you can surely say it about those places too. But really sit back and think about all the kids in here and what they've gone through, overcome, or battled, its awe-inspiring. One dad the other day said everyone should be made to come here and walk through the ICU or PCTU (heart wing), he said life would be a lot different on this earth. It's totally true. Just witnessing in this short week what Colby has had to endure is more than I have ever gone through in my entire life, he's six months old. Like today, he had to have another blood draw. He was just sitting on his bed cooing away as this guy stood over him and poked him right in the arm, he cried for 30 seconds and then stopped. Now keep in mind he's had about 20, 30, 40 other pokes all-over his body. Yet he lays here today just content as can be. That is the definition of strength and he doesn't even know it yet, how strong he is. He is a hero to me. All the kids here are heroes.

Blog to ya later.

Doogie