James was more responsive today.  This morning, his kind nurse brought a new memory-like pillow that seemed more comfortable and cushion booties for his feet.

His brothers Chris and Jeff are visiting and there was a moment when it became obvious that James realized that Chris was standing by the side of his bed. Chris said, "Hey Jim" and James leaned over across the bed with his good right hand and clasped Chris's hand, eyes fluttering open to see Chris. We all gave a little hooray over this recognition. 

My mother and Robert, James's friend since high school days, flew in on a red-eye from California. We are grateful for Robert's love and for the fact that he makes an excellent partner for my mother to navigate through New York City during this blustery almost spring season.  We filled James's NICU room to capacity this morning and did our very best to keep quiet. The Sheehans share a bit of dark humor so there was probably more laughter in the NICU than heard in quite some time.  Needless to say, it is a serious space in the hospital but the joy of the Sheehan brothers was slightly hard to contain, especially with Robert added to the mix.

The team of doctors for James includes specialists in infectious disease, neurology, and cardiology.  The infectious disease team are growing bacteria cultures in the lab from the material taken from James's brain.  They need to find the specific bacteria that caused the infection so that they may narrow the range of treatment with antibiotics.  So far, they have grown one type of bacteria and they should have a definitive identification by tomorrow, in the late afternoon.

The neurological team are monitoring the pressure in the ventricles in James's brain.  They want to confirm that no added pressure is placed on his brain and that there are no further complications from his surgery. There is not a problem with the pressure at the moment. 

Since James was more responsive today, it also means he's experiencing slightly more pain and discomfort. I'm afraid he's a bit of a frisky patient in that he does not like the pain in his head and therefore, must wave his arm in the direction of his head to point it out!  Luckily, we are able to ask him questions and he is able to respond by a squeeze of the hand. We ascertained that he needed a little pain medication today and it was delivered after he "asked." 

He remains intubated which means he has assistance to breath. This tube is also quite uncomfortable but we hope he will be able to breath on his own soon and that it may be removed.

As I have mentioned previously, there is not really a timeline in the NICU.  We move toward little goals and feel relief with more responses from James. He's an excellent toe-wiggler on command.

I want to give a big thank you to the PS34 PTA that was generous in their gifts of food for Imogen and me.  We appreciate the kindness that comes in the form of sustenance and perhaps, a bit of sweetness too!

Love to all those that have commented such wonderful things about James and why we all care for him. 

I truly feel blessed to have the community embrace us during this time.

The Sheehan brothers insisted that I tell everyone that on our walk back from lunch yesterday (Chinese food in the neighborhood of the hospital), as we were walking under a bower of trees, a lovely New York City pigeon planted a poop on my head.  They see it as a sign of good luck.  I'll take it in whatever form it wants to shape itself.

Peace out to you all on this Wednesday night. Imogen wants to show me her ballroom dancing moves learned today in her first class at school.

xoxo,

Jen