36 hours and counting... (July 7th Update)

Josh had a pretty good day today. He was awake when we got there this morning and mom and dad got to see him nod and shake his head appropriately to our questions or comments. It was very exciting for them to see this, me too, but it was there first time. Josh smiled at mom and dad today and he blew a kiss to them as well. He also did the squeezing of the hand, wiggle of the toes, etc. He was a little agitated at first, but he was able to calm down and he seemed pretty alert this morning. When alert, Josh will follow you around the room and turn to look your direction if you say something to him. The funniest thing he did today was towards dad. Dad was being silly (imagine that!) and we told Josh to stick his tongue out at dad if he was crazy - I haven't seen him stick it out that far yet!! We all got a good laugh out of that one. Today Josh also gave the "I love you" sign in sign language to each of us individually. That really means alot! Tonight before we left Josh was again a little agitated, but they gave him some medicine and he seemed to chill out and was drifting off to sleep. I pray that he has a good night.

Today Josh was moved to the CCU unit (room 3731). This is a lateral move; he is still in intensive care, they just had to move him because he was the most stable patient in the unit that he was in (I like hearing that!) and they needed his room for someone much sicker. Hopefully tomorrow he will get moved to the stepdown unit (intermediate intensive care) - Guess what that meant - he has been off of the ventilator now going on 36 hours!!! He has done pretty well too. Occasionally he breathes hard, but he will calm down so the ventilator is not necessary at this time.

Josh also got his feeding tube today as well and all seemed to go fine. They can't use the feeding tube for 24 hours to let his stomach rest, but hopefully later tomorrow he can get the one tube that is in his nose out. Other than that, nothing left to report. I was very pleased with Josh's progress today. Hopefully even more progress tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend. We love you all.