Ok, let’s take an assessment. As per usual I will start with the things pissing me off, and wrap up with all the good things in my life. I’m not a pessimist! I just save the best for last.

My son and daughter are in ICU, and have more tubes threaded into them than I can count. My wife hobbles around like an 80 year old grandmother. Her surgery was good stuff. Heidi says her breasts feel like “flaming boulders”, and she has to hookup a nazi torture machine to them every two hours for fifteen minutes to extract about a 1/4 shot of milk! Talk about a slap in the face. They found cancer in my mom’s neck where her thyroid was, and she will have to undergo more scans and treatments. This means she will be isolated at home throughout Christmas because she will be radioactive…

Ok, the good stuff? My son and daughter, while critical, are stable. They received their central lines today which is a more permanent IV line for the road ahead. Rhys’ chest tube was removed today. The hole in his lung was completely healed. His oxygen level is hovering around 25% and 30%. That is the oxygen level on his vent, I mean. The idea is to bring this down to 0% to get them breathing room air. Leilani is still around 35% – 60%… This last visit Leilani has finally calmed down a bit. Earlier she was flailing around just mad as all get out. They changed her diaper and she’s doing better now. :) Boy is she going to be a handful. The pressure on Leilani’s vent has been lowered. I think this will help the hole in her lung heal. The staff here at TMC have been exceptional! I can’t say enough good things about these people here. Even the worst of them are better than most of the military docs I had to visit most of my life.

So, why is Christmas cancelled? Well, I don’t mean it to sound that harsh. But, nothing can possibly touch the amount of emotion I have felt in the last few days. A good Christmas for me will be a nice quiet day/night with my kids. All the parties and get togethers are so far away from my mind… I have my daughter and my son, what better Christmas could I have?

Ok, here’s some pics. Today I only have pics of Rhys.

Rhys sleeping with all his tubes… :(

Rhys under the lights…