Close Your Eyes

While I was looking for this photo to post today, I had to scroll past many others to find it. I paused at a lot of them. Like the photos taken from ICU when Parker was hooked up to the machines which kept his lungs breathing, his kidneys working, his heart beating, his abdomen draining of the poison that almost killed him .... twice.

I paused at the photo of his sitting up the first time, and they day he stood on his own two feet, with Lindsey and Martin and three others surrounding him for balance. He stood that day for 20 seconds.

I cried when I saw the photo of he and Lindsey and Miranda walking away from me, the first steps he took in the hallway without the walker. I teared up at the way Lindsey had her hand very gently against his back, and the way he had to hold up his pants because they were falling off. And I smiled when I remembered both girls looking up at him and exclaiming, Wow, you are really tall! We had no idea!

I love the photos taken the first time he went outside and looked up at the trees and the sky, another of the cup when he got his first glass of water, and when he got the tube out of his nose (the first time). Other favorites are from when he had his first piece of watermelon, and the car transfer and stepping-down-the-curb test from rehab.

But this one, the one above, is my favorite of all time. He is so ALIVE!

Thank you God, for bringing my son back to me. Thank you for sitting next to him all those months, and for letting your Light shine as to heal him. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, what can I do for you?

Below are some rather graphic photos of the skin graft. Don't look if you have a queasy stomach. The first was taken three days after the surgery. The mesh looking stuff is his flesh. They "harvest" the flesh from his thigh with a machine that looks like a cheese slicer. Then they run that flesh through a machine that stretches it out and makes it more likely to attach to the wound. Then they place it on the wound and stitch plus staple the whole thing.

The other photo of that area was taken this morning, 13 days after the surgery. Most of the donor skin has attached with the exception of one small portion where Parker's belly button was turned underneath after they had to open him up on the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome day and leave it open for so long. Parker was hoping they could retrieve his belly button and pop it back onto his stomach when they did the graft, but they couldn't. They threw his belly button away. :-(

There is also a photo of the site where they harvested the skin from his thigh, taken this morning, and one other of the trach site. it's amazing how much better he felt once that trach was out of his windpipe.

All these photos mean to me that Parker is alive. We continue to work on physical therapy, on endurance and conditioning. He hasn't driven yet, and being out in the open still makes him feel slightly disoriented. But he is walking great, and this morning when I woke up at 4:am, I tiptoed into his room to check on him, and he was fast asleep on his stomach. For the first time. I went back to bed with a smile.

P.S. Wow, the FedEx guy is probably laughing because the last time he came, not only did he make me jump, but he brought me a very welcome gift from a good friend who sent a gift card to Central Market. Same thing just happened, and it couldn't have happened at a more appropriate time! Thank you SO much Chuck and Barbara, for your generosity and thoughtfulness. Hopefully this is beginning to wind down and I will (hopefully) be home soon.