Day 59: Dr. Thomas Treats Curious George

 Duplicated from our CaringBridge site for permanent record here.

January 15, 2021, written by Mama

Friday was a quiet day of improvement. The trajectory the whole team would like to see involves weeks and weeks of quiet days of improvement. 

All of Thomas's "belly labs" (measuring organ function) and immune response labs continue to improve.

Thomas has already been getting Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy five times weekly and today was newly assigned Occupational Therapy five times weekly. He is going to be a seriously busy and tired boy, but this is so good for him. 

PRAYER INTENTION: It is actually unclear if Thomas will qualify for in-patient rehabilitation at the end of this journey, but I'm told that his primary team of doctors strongly wants him to have it. We as a family want him to have it because we think he will grow stronger faster doing a couple of weeks in-patient than going home where my attention as a caregiver is tremendously divided among six children and running the home, and where I then have to drive to the therapy offices three, four, or five days weekly. There is a scenario under which Thomas would have nothing medically wrong with him anymore to qualify to stay in the hospital, but he would still be too weak muscularly to qualify for the robust in-patient rehabilitation, so please pray (1) that his medical healing and his bodily strengthening increase in concert with each other in just the right way and (2) that a bed will be available in this renowned rehab center to which people travel from all over the region. Thank you for the prayers.

And we have been informed that even if Thomas goes through in-patient rehab, he will still require months of multiple-times weekly outpatient rehab.

On Friday, the Child Life Therapist made Thomas a Curious George doll with all the same medical accoutrement that Thomas has. Thomas--Dr. Thomas with his very own badge!--received a bin of medical supplies so that he can do procedures on George.

At one point Thomas was actually shivering today with temperatures in the low 96s, which was markedly odd for the boy running low-grade fevers all last week! He asked for two extra warm blankets and his fuzzy hat. After a while, his temperature regulated again.

Thomas was so happy to receive a visit from Daddy in the evening . . . and Mama was so happy to have another person to read him Pickle Chiffon Pie, which is a favorite book of mine but reading it five times in one day is a little bit trying. Daddy also helped keep Thomas awake till 9:00 p.m., which contributed to his best overnight sleeping yet: asleep from 9:00 to 2:00 a.m. and then asleep again until 6:00 a.m.! 

Overnight, I position Thomas's bed just right for me to keep an eye on him. I lower his bed as low as it will go, and raise his head just a little, such that, if I sleep in one particular direction on my little sofa, I can open my eyes anytime and see both Thomas's monitor and watch his face through this little handle-hole in the bed.

Quotations of the Day

At Thomas's middle-of-the-night waking, he woke me with such a polite request. "Mama, can you help me?" 

I sat up and groggily said, "Sure, honey, what do you need."

"My foot has fallen in a pit."

"Your foot has fallen in a pit?!"

Investigation revealed that his right foot had slid off the pillow on which his feet were resting, so it felt to him like it fell in a pit. The foot was re-situated and order restored.

Miscellaneous Moments from the Homefront