Sunday March 15th

Hello again. Clay had a pretty good day. He was much more awake and aware of his surroundings. He was even awake when we went in at 6:00 this morning for our early visit. He had a visit from the doctors this morning right after dressing change and the put in a central I.V. in his groin area. The nurse explained that this would be more comfortable for Clay and reduce the amount of times he would have to be stuck with a needle this week. Apparently after continually placing I.V. s in the hands, arms , and legs it gets much more difficult to hit the veins and they put in the central line to give them a rest. They also came in tonight and indicated that Clay had reached another milestone of sorts. He is to be placed on a standardized sleep/wake cycle. This means they will not be doing dressing changes or any procedures through the night that might interrupt his nights sleep. I am sure he will be happy to have this normalcy as soon as his body adjusts. Mom and I discovered the one disadvantage to him being awake and aware was that he could more easily break our hearts. When our visiting hours were over we would let him know we were going to step outside. His bottom lip would start to stick out followed by tears and we would have to go right back in and give him a pep talk. In the last visit this evening his mother and aunt were giving him some ice chips. They try not to give to many. He looked up at them and held up the index finger on his right hand and mouthed the word more. Of course after that he could have probably talked them out of the whole cup. Today seemed like progress to us. Thanks for all of the prayers, visits ,and encouragements.