Benjamin day 10

Today has been a good but very busy day! On rounds this morning, they made a plan to start decreasing one of Benjamin's 2 meds that he is on for the withdrawl. We are going from 6 times a day to 3 and if he tolerates that (which he did today so far) then the plan is to go home tomorrow! We are very hopeful that will be the case. Everyone here at Riley has been great, but it is TIME TO GO! lol. The unit that he is on is nice, but the nurses are busy (ie overworked) and can't give each patient the care that they get in the ICU. So I am pretty much here all of the time taking care of Benjamin. One of the nurses referred to him as a mama's boy. That is pretty true as he cries anytime I am out of sight. I did manage to run over to the Ronald McDonald house today to check out there and grab a bite to eat. I was gone around an hour or so and when I came back, I found Benjamin in his high chair next to a nurse in the hallway who was charting. He didn't see me at first and I had to laugh as he was rubber necking to see anyone and everyone who walked by. He is so social and the nurses really love him here. His cute personality is starting to reappear more and more and it is awesome to see. He is smiling a lot more today and even laughing at times. He is getting stronger and gets annoyed by all of the wires that are on him and that he can't move around much. It will be SO nice when he isn't hooked up to anything anymore!

As I mentioned, today was quite busy. He saw the physical therapist and occupational therapist today. He also had a repeat EEG. We'll hear the results tomorrow. I was expecting it to go as smoothly as the first in the ICU but I didn't account for the fact that he is a lot more awake and alert then he was then. They took him off of the unit for this one, wrapped him in a sheet like a mummy so he wouldn't "help" and they glued a bunch of wires to his head. I saw pretty fast that he wasn't going to just lay there and take it. I sang to him, which helped distract him but he still wasn't a happy boy about it:)

This whole experience has been quite humbling. God definitely has a plan in everything he does. It has forced me to just stop and be with my son and my family. Nothing else was more important, which reminded me that life doesn't always have to be so busy. We have been on the go so much lately and this experience has really made me reevaluate things and take things one day at a time. To really just stop and enjoy life and enjoy my family. Children are such a blessing. Such a true gift from God. This experience reminded me to cherish and enjoy mine everyday and am excited to do that. This has really put that back into perspective.

Thank you again for reading, for your support and continued prayers for Benjamin and our family. We have felt very covered in prayer during this trying time. Please continue to pray for Benjamin's full recovery and for the many families here at Riley going through a lot of tough stuff. I am in awe of the strength of some of the parents here that I have met and heard of their stories.

Enjoy some of the pictures below that I took when David and Andrew visited us yesterday.

Rebecca

As long as there are cars, Andrew is happy anywhere! :)


Here mom, have a carrot. mmmmm! lol





See ya!