Dwayne’s day to go. Nurse Susan called me in the morning. I jumped up to answer (like I’ve been doing the past few days). Immediately asked if Eli was ok. She reassured me he was, but that he was confused and a little upset. He was asking for me, his mom. Broke my heart in a thousand pieces. What kind of mom doesn’t stay with her son in the SICU all night… but I was not allowed to because of Covid. Then the nice nurse put me through to Eli, which seems to be out of the norm because it took awhile and a hang up or two. Then I heard his voice. I could tell he was upset. I explained again about the visiting hours being from 10am-8pm and that only one of us could be there per day, but reassured him that dad was coming soon. He wanted to know exactly what time he’d be there. He calmed down a bit, then asked why he was in England? I said, “well, you’re not in England.” Eli replied, “then why do they all speak with accents?” Sometimes we laugh, and that was one of those times. There was a nurse there last night with an accent (although I thought it was a Jamaican accent), and he told me that she said she was from England. I said “she probably is, E”, and he quietly replied, “oh, ok.”

Dwayne arrived at 10am. First report he gave me was that he was sleeping and had the Spanish channel on the tv. That’s our Eli! Dwayne gave a few typical reports throughout the morning like he’s uncomfortable and trying to sleep. But, then good reports starting coming like the fact that he asked to go the bathroom (sorry E) and went there with just a little help from his nurse and Dwayne – huge progress from just yesterday! Dwayne said he wasn’t interested in eating, but that they were going to make him a blizzard type of something and that he smiled  SLP came, and the report was good. He’s eating and drinking fine, just not hungry, but still confused about where he is, but I’d say that’s pretty damn normal for his condition!

Then I got the words I’ve been longing to hear! Dwayne called and told me that the neurosurgeon was just there and told him that Eli was making AMAZING progress and that no-one usually progresses this fast!! Even said he’d probably be out of SICU in a few days!!!! Holy Cow! We knew he was progressing faster than we expected, but this, this is the miracle we’ve been praying for. I got to facetime with him a few minutes ago, and he’s soooo much more alert than even yesterday! Speech is more fluent and he was smiling his beautiful smile that I’ve also been longing to see. Thank you God in Heaven and my favorite angels above for healing our Eli. Please continue to watch over his recovery, we know he still has a ways to go, but we are forever grateful for this amazing progress. I have no other words that I know how to express right now. Love to you all and to our Eli.