He Takes My Heart With Him

Tuesday

Tuesday morning, Jack woke up and cried. Eyes not yet open, he crawled to the side of the crib and reached for me. I pulled him into my arms and kissed his forehead. Upon feeling his skin, I immediately drew back and looked closely at him. He was cool. Cool as a cucumber, is the phrase we use in our family. Jack hadn't had tylenol since bedtime, yet this morning he didn't have a fever. Oh, praise God! His fever had broken.

Throughout the day, Jack showed signs of getting better. He began drinking apple juice and eating some rice cereal. He fussed because he wanted to get down and play. That afternoon, the nurses agreed to free him from his monitors and his IV for awhile so he could go down to the playroom. For almost an hour, he crawled around the playroom, loving, in particular, a Fisher-Price car ramp that he could stand next to and play. We let him stay in the playroom until he got too tired. He still tired very easily and was sleeping much of the day. But, he was getting better!

The doctors still hadn't found the source of the infection and were having trouble deciding what to do. He didn't have a team of doctors, he had an entire league of them. He had the pediatricians on the 5th floor; he had the pediatric neurosurgeons; he had the pediatric plastic surgeons. From around 7am until 11am, doctors, residents, and interns made the rounds to check on Jack. He learned it wasn't a good sign when anyone with a name badge entered his room. Just the sight of scrubs, a white coat, or a name badge made him cry. Poor little guy. The nurses loved him and tried so hard to make friends with him. Unfortunately, they were also the ones to check his vitals, fix his monitors, and redo his IV. He was scared of his nurses. All these people together, working to make our Jack healthy. . . how do you say thank you for that? How do you say thank you for someone making sure your child comes home with you? I don't know. I said thank you to everyone who came into Jack's room; every time they came in. And I prayed. I prayed for blessings for these people who do God's work every minute of their day. Who go without sleep, without eating, without seeing their own families, to make sure that my child is okay. God, bless them.