Meltdown

I feel so bad for Jake, as he is so tired and still isn't sleeping much. He's so exhausted, he's almost delirious. The poor kid had a total meltdown late this afternoon for about an hour and a half crying and upset because he was thirsty and doesn't understand why he can't have some water. We are giving him sponge sticks dipped in water, but it's just not enough. He also kept saying "It's not my fault" which of course it isn't. And with the fixation mode he's in, he just keeps thinking about and saying the same things over and over. It's such a horrible feeling when you see your kid going through this and can't fulfill such a basic need as giving them water. We are hoping and praying that we can have the team give him a swallow test tomorrow to see if he's swallowing properly and into his stomach instead of his lungs. While his neck has gotten stronger already, I'm not sure it's strong enough yet, but we're hopeful.

During the middle of this, a volunteer brought her dog by as part of the pet visitation program. Blondie was a gorgeous soft Collie and seemed to help for a little while until it made Jake start missing his own dog, Molly. Then the tears and upset continued. 

Jake got a new bed yesterday called a Pozy bed, which is a basic hospital bed but instead of rails, has a tent-type thing that goes over it and can be completely zippered closed. Its purpose is two-fold. One, it's supposed to create a cozy space and two, it keeps him from wiggling his way out of bed. When the nurse saw how much he was moving around the bed now, the concern was that down the road he might try and climb out and hurt himself if we weren't watching. I had climbed in bed with him trying to calm him when he was so upset and that's when my Dad got this picture.

To lighten things up...the hospital provided us with a “sitter” again this evening to be in the room with me and help out with Jake.  Her name is Virginia and we’ve had her a couple of other times, and have been very pleased with her. Tonight while she was here, Jake calls to me and says "Mom, Virginia is keeping me awake with her cell phone because she's texting.” (Which she wasn't at that moment, she'd checked her phone earlier when I was sitting with him.) You never know what that kid is going to come up with!

  

Specific Prayer Requests:

1. That Jake does well on the swallow test so he can start eating some food.

2. Continued strength for all of us to get through this phase of agitation, restlessness, fixation, and sleeplessness, which we are told can be the most stressful and difficult part of the recovery process.