Time Slips Away

Today marks a week since Mal's hospitalization. It seems like a century of events have occurred since last Friday, and even since I last wrote an entry on Mal's progress. She has been wowing the doctors and nurses with her brute will not move, be it to wiggle in bed, pull her arms/legs away from someone trying to take a temperature reading, or getting up and walking. That's right, Mal skipped right over a couple milestones and just decided she could get up and walk. On Thursday, Mal started moving her head from side to side on her own. Then, her physical therapist tried to get Mal to sit up in bed, but Mal was not a fan of that. Miss Jill, the physical therapist, told us that Mal was normal, and like all other kids hated her physical therapist. She gave Rachel and I some exercises to work on with Mal, like sitting up by herself and sitting in a chair. Later that night, Mal sat up with my aid and then balanced for about 20 seconds before she wanted to lie down.

Mal's big breakthrough came at about midnight last night, when she rolled over on her stomach in bed. She was trying to get comfortable, but couldn't negotiate the tube running from her head, so she grabbed at it and tried to rip it out. We stopped her and called for the nurse, which infuriated Malorie. She then pushed up into the crawling position and tried to stand up on her own. We pulled her back down into the bed, defeated her next 2.4 million attempts to grab at her tube, and then watched as she fell asleep.

This morning, on a full night of rest, Mal was a bit more amenable to the idea of sitting up. We got her to sit up, and even climb into a kid chair. Instead of having me lift her into the chair, Mal wanted to get in herself, so she stood up and got in. This, of course, made our jaws drop, so we asked if she wanted to walk around. She wanted pants and shoes first, and I can't blame her. I like to wear pants too. Anyway, Mal then proceeded to walk with support around her room a couple of times and even ventured out to the nurses' station. When she got out to the hallway, a bunch of onlookers started telling her she was doing a great job, so she immediately decided she needed to lay down. I made her walk back to her bed, where she settled in for a nice nap.

Also, the visitors just keep rolling through, but one very important little man came to see Mal yesterday. Micah made his first visit to see Mal, and was a bit excited to see her. When told he was going to see Mal, he started dancing. As Micah arrived into the room, his excitement blended with fear as he saw her for the first time with the bandages, but he managed well. After talking it over with him, he even climbed into her hospital bed to check out Mal's personal TV. Micah ate dinner up here with us and then I took him home to put him to sleep there.

Mal is constantly pulling at her ventriculostomy tube, which bothers her to no end. The doctors have been able to increase her cranial pressure to 20 cm, and believe that she may be able to get the tube removed by Sunday. That, of course, can't happen soon enough for us, as we battle around the clock to keep Mal from touching and tugging on the thing. The fact that her progress is going so well leads us to believe that Mal will not need a shunt put in for permanent drainage, but we will have to wait to ensure she maintains positive progress for now.

OK, as with most things, time has again slipped away from me. Mal is waking now from her nap and I need to spend time with her. I can't wait to see what she does next.