Today was good for Parker but we are getting increasingly anxious to leave Necker.
Parker has one bandage on his head now and one on his stomach. He will have his first set of scars.
The neuro-surgeon wants to have a check-up with him in two months, and he will have to have another MRI prior to that check up.
Renee worked with him this morning and he seems to be remembering his reflex of how to sit up by bracing his hands. He doesn't hold it for more than a half a second but we are encouraged.
He is attached to nothing except his pacifier. He still has an iv line in his right hand but it is not hooked up to a machine and he has no iv medications.. We can walk around freely with him. Three weeks ago he had 5 ties that supported life: breathing tube, feeding tube, central line, peripheral iv, urinary catheter; and 5 that monitored life: oxygenation level, heart rate, respiration, brain activity, blood pressure. Now it is just God sustaining his life and all of us monitoring.
We moved to Neurology in the afternoon. It is in the same building as the USC, a floor down from where we were before. The atmosphere is much more casual, there is a tv in the room, a telephone, visits by his sisters are allowed. For the first time in 24 days, he is sharing a room with someone else; a little girl who is 4 months old-- her twin died in utero at 3 months. The family is Northern African and speak mostly Arabic amongst themselves while we speak English. We converse with them in French. The little girl cries quite a bit which is hard on us but Parker doesn't seem to mind. The family is very kind and after two weeks here are going home to Angouleme (southwest France) tomorrow.
We feel like we are at the end stage of the hospitalization process-- the part where you are not supposed to scratch the wound but it is almost unbearable not to. We have focused our prayers on the exit strategy now. The intern informed us that our file is with the physical therapy facility in Garches, a suburb to the west of Paris. It is a day clinic so PJ would come home at night. We should find out tomorrow if he is accepted there.
If not we are working with our extremely helpful and concerned Pediatrician, Dr Robin, on other options that will allow us to leave the hospital while still assuring that he gets the therapy he needs. This is the part of French medical system that becomes tricky as we don't really know what our options are and how much of the treatment plan we can take/should take on ourselves.
Small hurdles to jump over but even the small ones become harder at the end of the lap-- even if we are not near the end of the race.
