Parents a Little Rough Around the Edges

Simon had a great morning, but it was a little rough for his parents.

We ended up going to the Alta Bates ER this morning for Laura's back. We couldn't find information about Urgent Care, so we ended up just going to the ER. While we were there, our friend Dre stayed with Simon. She had to leave for an appt and one of our favorite residents, Rachna, called us personally just to let us know that Simon was having a great morning, was very chatty and quite happy. I loved that the *resident* called us just to give us a little update :-)

After 3.5 hours there, we left with a prescription for Vicodin and Motrin and headed back to the hospital. When we arrived, I went to put food in the fridge and saw a huge Edible Arrangement on the top shelf. The nurses all said, "that's for you". I started laughing and then looked at the tag- it was from an old friend whom I haven't talked to in YEARS.

At about noon, two friends from the dog park came by with sushi and a big stuffed Boxer for Simon. We're going to make putting brindle stripes on it the resident art project.

Yesterday, one of our friends who is a resident in Sacramento drove down immediately after her 32 hour call shift, stayed for an hour or so and then drove back and had to be at the hospital again that night at 10 pm.

We have a whole team of people taking care of Roxie this week. Amazing.

Incredible bounty continues...

That said, we're both still totally wiped out from the stress of this weekend. Simon looks much better, his breathing, while still rapid, is much less labored and his heart rate is about 10 points lower than it was. He's in very good spirits and quite happy One of our cardiologists came by today and said, "if you didn't look at his chart, you wouldn't know he's sick" which was one of the best comments so far. It's so much better than him looking and feeling really ill AND I'm struggling to reconcile those two conflicting truths- he looks and feels good and is still critically, critically ill. I guess that's why I'm so tired. It's a lot of work to stay in hope and reality at a time like this.

Another funny note- yesterday our friend Alex came by. I was talking with her about how incredible it is not to feel alone during this whole process thanks to all our community, but also that I was feeling badly that all these people were on this roller coaster with us. When we were suffering, they were suffering. She said, "You're stupid. Shut up" and I just about peed my pants laughing. Now if Laura or I apologize to each other for something silly we just say, "you're stupid, shut up" with a bit smile and burst into laughter.

Simon had his first solid food today! We tried a little rice cereal mixed with breast milk. He was feelin' it and we'll bring in a tray for his little seat so he can really make a mess tomorrow. Little Man might end up being an eater after all. I told the cardiologist I was going to try bacon tomorrow and he said, "sounds good, but it's a little salty. What about salt-free bacon?". Everyone has such a good sense of humor around here. It really helps...