Day 10 - Evening

Todd and I both got a tough dose of reality today. While we are so thankful for the progress Jake has made during this critical first 10 days, we realized that the next phase of slowly weening  him off the sedation, meds and ventilator is going to be really hard emotionally and mentally. Jake was a little more alert then he has been and was opening his left eye a little, but he was also a little agitated. It was wonderful to be able to ask questions and get a thumbs up for yes and a fist for no, and but along with that came frustration on his part not being able to communicate. I saw him trying to open his mouth to talk, and yanking his right arm trying to indicate something (He's got a loose arm restraint so he can't pull on his tubes).

We're realizing that as we go through this next few weeks, he's going to become more and more aware of his current limitations, may be in pain, and may be scared. As parents all you want to do is protect your kids and take away their hurt and in this case we can't. All we can do is reassure him that we are there for him, but he is going to have to feel that pain and frustration and that stinks. In my taking things day by day, I hadn't allowed myself to see that in order to get better, he's going to go through some rough time.

So that brings me to my prayer requests for today:
- Pray for Jake to go through this next phase with minimal pain and fear
- Please pray for strength for Todd and I to stay positive, give Jake what he needs and recognize when we need a break so we can come back stronger.