surgery day + 1

owen is sleeping and daddy is pulling the night shift again. i left owen around seven thirty this morning while he was sleeping off his final dose of loritab and didn't see him again until around five this evening. the difference was very encouraging. he was awake and begging for his bug bite crackers. the doctors cut that idea short so he polished off two cups of orange jello. his throat started hurting again when he was trying to go to sleep so he needed a little motrin but that was his first pain med since the loritab this morning. children heal amazingly fast. he moved to a private room from the scu around ten thirty this morning and that is a welcome change. if you want to feel good about your life, just hang around a children's hospital. most of us would choose to keep our own problems.

a central waiting room services the burn unit, pediatric icu, and the scu. during the day it is difficult to find a seat and around four this morning there were probably fifteen people sleeping there. no one looked remotely close to comfortable. one lady from near alexander city has been there since last saturday. her four year old grandson was hit by a drunk driver and drug under the car. he will need reconstructive surgery on his face and he had one leg amputated just below the knee. she doesn't plan on going home before her grandson and he won't be going home anytime soon. a girl in the bed next to owen's room in scu would have nasty coughing spells and needed the nurses to pound on her back--presumably to loosen the mucus in her chest so she could cough it up. a little boy from arkansas was visiting his dad in mississippi and ended up in the burn unit at uab. some children have parents with them whenever possible. some don't. many of the parents appear quite poor. many who appear the poorest are single women. i cannot imagine the stress of trying to care for a sick child alone and with limited to nonexistent resources. sometimes i worry about owen and his future. this hospital gives me a perspective that, while not enjoyable, is necessary. God has blessed us tremendously.

i need to make a vending machine run while junior is good and asleep. i think there is a juice machine by the cafeteria. if i am lucky, they will have fruit juice that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient. it can be very difficult not to live on junk while staying in a hospital.

jason