Grid Placement: Day 3

My eyes were still closed as my ears honed in on a voice I hadn't heard in a while... "May I please have some more apple juice? Thank you!"

Nonesense. Go back to sleep, Beth. It was a dream.

"And thank you for letting me watch this show!"

From a dead sleep, I leapt from my bed. I startled the poor nurse half to death. Sure enough, it was

Renn. He was sitting up, drinking apple juice, and watching T.V. I nearly cried. I noticed right away that the swelling had gone down. I could see his right eye, once again. And dare I say it? He smiled at me.

I didn't even notice that it was still pitch-black outside, that the nurse was still our night nurse, or that the PICU was extremely quiet. But once I did, I glanced at the clock. Yeah... It was 5:21am. I had gotten four straight hours of sleep, and Renn had gotten eight. While that was cause for celebration on its own, it was still early. Renn began to fall back to sleep after the juice settled, so I plopped back into my oh-so-lovely vinyl pull-out chair. Less than 30 minutes later, all that apple juice came back to say hello.

Poor Renn. He kept crying and saying that he was sorry. I wanted to scoop him up into my arms and RUN.

A quick bedding change later, and Renn was fast asleep. He slept for an additional four hours... I paced the floor.

We had quite the emotional roller coaster from that point on. I was elated when our Jedi decided he wanted to order pancakes and apples! He slowly ate them, and attempted to play video games for a while. Then the pain started increasing again. Can you imagine trying to chew when part of your skull is free-floating on the top of your head?

ME. EITHER.

When Daddy and E came by, Renn was hitting his threshold. We got his pain meds administered, but since he had been rubbing his eye a bit, our wonderful nurse decided that maybe adorning him with a super cool eye patch would help him feel like there was no need to rub. It didn't last long... He just wanted to sleep.

After being out for no more than 10mins, he woke up nearly screaming. I shot out of my seat and nearly screamed, myself. The right side of his face had blown up nearly THREE TIMES its normal size. He was in agony.

We called in all the doctors and nurses we could. No one knew what had happened... no one knew what to do. Trying not to completely panic, we waited for Neurosurgery to come to an agreement. Eventually, the only thing anyone could think was that Renn had had an allergic reaction to something. They gave him a teeny dose of Benadryl, and he drifted off to sleep.

Hours went by... Swelling went down slightly, but Renn's sheer pain and frustration only grew. He begged me to take him home. He went silent because he didn't want to talk to anyone. He just... Hurt.

Into the evening, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Call me crazy, but my momma taught me that when something was starting to swell, you put ice (or frozen peas) on it. Well, I got a washcloth and submerged it into our bucket of melting ice chips. I had him hold that on his eye for two full hours, only removing it to submerge it again. Now, I'm not saying that what I did helped my kiddo out all on its own. But I am saying that the cool distraction contributed to him not rubbing his swollen eye, at the very least.

When I got him a red popsicle, he actually gave me a BIG smile. I was so happy... It was THE reward I was hoping to get. (And yes, this is his face AFTER the swelling had gone down. Remember, it was roughly three TIMES the size of his regular face, on the right side only)

Due to the massive amounts of medications that came his way, we had ZERO seizures, today. My gut is telling me that the second surgery will be postponed until the beginning of next week. However, I do believe in a God who can make anything happen, so we will continue to pray for seizures that make all this pain and frustration worth it.

We just have to stick to God's promises... Tomorrow is a new day.

"'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,'

 declares the LORD" 

 Jeremiah 30:17