Miracles happen

We are witnessing miracles, my mom says. When asked today to grip Mom's hand if he could hear her, Ben squeezed her fingers. Dad asked Ben to open his eyes in response to a question. Ben's pulsing eyelids revealed his effort, but when he just couldn't do it, he instead clasped his hands together and lifted them as a different affirmative sign.

Ben now has a strong breathing pattern on his own. He has been on a ventilator since Wednesday, one that essentially filled in the gaps when he wasn't taking strong enough breaths or enough of them. If he can keep up this effective breathing he's on schedule to have the ventilator removed.

A second EEG was done Monday. It still showed abnormal brain wave activity but is an improvement over the EEG performed last Thursday. Ben's boss pointed out, though, that we all know Ben is wired differently! And don't even get my family started on references to the movie Young Frankenstein. "Just whose brain did you get?" "Uh, Abby someone?"

Ben has tried to sit up. I mentioned yesterday that nurses had to restrain his left arm. Now they've followed suit with the right. Otherwise Ben would most likely get his way and tug at all the wires and tubes that seemingly annoy him.

I like this show of will. It reminds me of when my daughter was born 10 years ago as a preemie, and how heartened we were when in the early moments she resisted all the poking and prodding. Even if the neonatalogist labeled her a "snot" for doing so.

I can't help thinking of that time in our lives; we celebrated Emma's birthday the day before Ben was hospitalized. In fact, because the hospital's departments have shifted, she was born in the very corridor where Ben now heals. Emma's birth was a time when we felt the power of prayer. To be feeling so many of the same emotions in such close proximity has alternately drained and bolstered me. Mostly though I recognize the same feeling of comfort and support from our Father in Heaven. I continue to pray for another miracle.

Jenni