April 9 - 9 am - First Night Down

Well, Amanda made it through the first night. Around midnight she woke up more than any other time since surgery and we were actually able to have a short conversation. No discussions about goals or ambitions or anything like that, but it was good to hear he put short sentences together again. She mentioned how she was aware of what we were saying earlier, but she just couldn't communicate. She said she was in there and could hear us, but couldn't speak. Watch what you say - she's listening!

So far it's been a steady, small diet of ice chips, but anything that has gone down has come back up shortly thereafter. Between regular checkups from the nurses and the shots of morphine, though, she slept pretty well.

At 3 am, she decided she had enough laying down and sat straight up, which freaked me out a little. I raised the bed to a sitting position, and after another ride on the barf train, she went back to sleep until the next checkup.

Dr Reichman came in around 6 am and indicated again that everything went very well in surgery. He's going to move her from ICU later this morning, and he wants her sitting in a chair at some point today. He's also having the nurses take the catheter out after the move so she will have to walk to the bathroom when that time comes. They don't mess around. So much for a slow, relaxing ride to recovery.

At 7:45 am, Dr Crockett came in, and I helped him change Mandy's head dressing. They didn't have to clean me up off the floor, so maybe being involved in all the children's births has done something to me. Maybe it was just the adrenaline. Her ear looks good and the shaving is indeed minimal - kind of like a bad 80's haircut that's high and tight around the ear.

Dr Shelton came in about 8:45 am and indicated that when swelling goes down, the facial nerve should return to normal, but for now, she's got a crooked little smile. He's going to start some kind of eye care routine because she has a hard time completely closing her right eye and he doesn't want it to dry out and create an ulcer on the cornea.

The doctors and nurses have been just terrific so far, and Mandy continues to slowly gain more strength. Slow but steady progress.