Days in the ICU

I know that I have been remiss in keeping the blog updated through the last few days- but when I look back at pictures... it just makes me sick to my stomach. The more that we find out about the injuries that Ryan received- the more we realized what had happened inside his little body and it makes me want to throw up. The nurse that Ryan spent the longest time with, Tracey, told me that I would want a ton of pictures of the time here in the hospital so that we could see the progress that Ryan has made- but for now... Blech.

To be fair though- Ryan was still Ryan, even hooked up to all the machines that he was and even while drugged up. It was more than a little relieving to hear stories from the nurses and doctors about pieces of his personality come through.

One of the Pediatric Residents that was on duty Sunday was doing her rounds at about 6:00 in the morning and was doing an assessment on Ryan. She was asking him simple questions- along the lines of "Can you hear me?", "Can you squeeze my finger?" Ryan would nod or shake his head in answer to her questions. She continued down her list and asked him "Can you open your eyes?" To which Ryan nodded his head- but kept his eyes closed. She sat there for a second and then asked him, "Will you open your eyes?" Ryan nodded his head again and opened his eyes for her. She told us the story later when we were sitting in his room- joking about the fact that a 20 month old had given her an English lesson.

It gave me hope to hear stories like this- it made it easier to believe that despite the tubes and beeping machines that my Ryan was in there somewhere.