Just a brief update between nap at home and going back to the hospital to relieve Chris: Kai is recuperating well, with occasional flare-ups of pain which are still being treated with morphine, oxycodone, and tylenol. The morphine causes itchiness, so benadryl is added to the mix. Thinking about this cocktail of medications makes me queasy, but most important right now is keeping his pain down. Each painful episode is immediately reflected in a rising blood pressure which, in turn, puts pressure on the sutures. The morphine still causes some hallucinations, so that at one point he woke up in panic, thinking that his bed was a stairwell and that he was falling.

When I left Kai with Chris this morning, he was playing with the train set in the playroom. There were two other children his age and Kai greeted them shyly. All were still still attached to their liquids and chest tubes, so moving around was tentative and awkward. The other boy, Sam, had just celebrated his second birthday in the hospital and was on his second open-heart operation. After two weeks, he is about to go back home. When the nurses commented on his beautiful chest scar, he looked very proud and smiled. Kids are AMAZING!

I slept on Kai's bed with him all night, holding his hand. He didn't sleep much, so we pretended the bed and sheets were a tent. He held the flashlight while I read his favorite stories from "Oh, wie schön ist Panama" by the German children's writer Janosch. Two best friends, bear and tiger, who are completely happy together find an empty box that smells of bananas and has the word "Panama" on it. They start dreaming about Panama, a land that must smell like bananas, and set off to find it. They travel far, meeting different kinds of animals, and eventually make their way in a circle back home, not recognizing that it is their old home and that, all along, they were living in a paradise. Kai loves this story. So do I.

Chris spent most of the day with him today while I slept and Oma visited for a while. I will see him shortly and notice the big strides he's taken today. He hasn't been eating much, just apple sauce and jello, but hopefully he'll be able to expand his repertoire tomorrow. We, on the other hand, have been enjoying the food brought over by friends (for today's food, thanks to Janet, Larissa, Celia and Jack!). It has been incredibly helpful to have delicious food waiting at home. Thank you!

I'm not taking my computer to the hospital, so will update again tomorrow. Given how Kai is progressing, we should all be back home by Saturday.