an update

I spent most of the day with two of the three DeMilos. Jessica is looking sooo much better than when I saw her last Saturday. The swelling has gone down quite a bit, and the head bandage, or "turban" as her mom Tejeanne calls it, has been removed. Jessica is moving more as well, and I saw her eye-lids flutter quite a few times. Two different nurses said they saw her eyes completely open. She's clearly still in a coma, but these are good signs. The two visual shocks for me were that she has almost no hair - so sad - and the wound itself. At first I only saw a small part of it and was like, What? All this stress, worry , trouble for that?!? Then I saw the whole thing, the stitches going back, way back over her head. Oh dear God, how is she even still alive? Oh that's right: God. And prayer. And these miracles we are all praying for. Yeah.

As of last night, the plan for today was to move Jessica from the ICU to the Medical ICU, described by her mom as "a separate wing of the ICU, which is a step-down in terms of care protocols." Before this event, I joined Tejeanne for lunch at IHOP. After "quick" trips to Barnes and Nobles, Staples and Micheals, we went back to the hospital, and I helped her take down the cards, posters, flyers, pictures, stuffed animals, flowers, etc. that have adorned Jessica's first hospital room. We trekked around the corner to the new room with all said flotsam and jetsam on a cart, then began re-posting them. We got half-way done before a whole host of nurses wheeled in Jessica. Her mom and I vacated for a few minutes while they got her settled. Standing outside the door, we could hear beepings and coughings. Jessica really struggles with being moved around, like her brain is totally overwhelmed with the stimulation - but not as much as last week, not as much as in those first few days, and this is encouraging. Still, it's hard to hear for those few minutes. Eventually they were done and we went back in. We finished putting everything up - cards, banners, pictures and finally decorating with the post-it note hearts that have words her friends use to describe her on them - written in glitter pen of course. Tejeanne chatted up a few nurses, made sure they had her phone number, made sure they heard stories about Jessica so that they can see her as more than a body in a bed.

Back here at home, the "slightly ghettoesque apartment" I've shared with Jessica for four months, I decided to check out her blog again. Reading her posts I wondered, Why haven't I read these before? These are hilarious! Oh yeah. I didn't need too. We talked and laughed together all the time. Hoping, praying, looking forward to such times again.