[not sure what day it is] morning

i think the nights are long in the ICU by definition- last night included. and i seem to forget that every time we get out- which hopefully means i'll forget it once we get out this time, too. i hesitate to post anything about the positive things that appear to be happening, mostly because in one of the initial posts about this visit i said something about coming home this week (like today). but i think that things are moving in a good direction, and we're getting closer to the brass tacks challenges of helping isaiah get back to the condition he was in when he wheeled his firetruck backpack into this place.

we have had some success in reducing the support he's getting from the ventilator, although it appears we may have rushed this reduction once or twice already- so it's going to be slow. isaiah still hasn't had anything in his stomach- and it's been 7 days. 7 days with nothing in your stomach and narcotics dripping in to your system makes for a slow resumption of normal nutrition- so i see that as a big hurdle. we've still been seeing some periodic fevers, and the antibiotics that he's on are being given to treat an unknown infection- cultures have grown no know bug yet. and- as some of you may recall- isaiah has some addiction issues, meaning that his body has been known to grow dependent on narcotics, and his withdrawal episodes have been pretty scary in the past. drips are still running, and we won't really know if he's going to struggle this time.

before i find a place to sleep, i want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the help- positive thoughts, prayers and material help. even in hard times, we struggle with needing help- maybe because we're a young american family living in a nation that is one of the most prosperous, developed places on earth- yet we still have an underdeveloped sense of what it means to rely on community.