Sorry about nearly seeing up my nose in this photo.  I'm not so good at "selfies" and we'll just have to take what we can get.  And we sure do have to give 'kudos' to Rees for his attempt to smile.

As you might be able to tell, we are still in the hospital.  Rees HAS made some progress, thankfully.  It's just very slow. "Neurosurg", as we're calling them, has confirmed that, though this side effect is uncommon, (yep, that's why Rees is having it), it is something that takes time.  It is a slow process.  It cannot be rushed.

So, for, now this is what progress in a slow-process looks like.

In the last (almost) 24 hours, Rees has progressed to eating some toast in addition to the crackers he has been keeping down.  He also had water and more Cola (best medicine ever) and then this afternoon, we graduated to chicken noodle soup.  That went well and he ate all of it.  About an hour and a half later, he did end up bringing some of it back up.  It surely wasn’t all of it, though, so we still feel progress has been made.

The other new thing for today is that the head of the bed is slowly being raised.  Instead of laying completely flat, we are up to 30 degrees and tolerating it okay, aside from the short bits of frustration.  These incidents nearly shut him down completely to the point that he will barely speak to anyone, including me.  That has made this a little more difficult but we are still hopeful for forward-progress.

There's all sorts of things that I imagine are going through his mind.  Each time we come to the hospital, we tell him that everything is going to be okay, the procedure will be quick, we'll get to go home right away, there won't be any owies, etc ... 

Now, let me assure you, ..  we NEVER deliberately tell our children something that isn't true or is beyond our expectations to pacify them or ourselves or to avoid an uncomfortable outburst or expression of disappointment.  

With Rees, it really just comes down to him NEVER reacting or responding in the way that the doctors expect or that follow suit with typical patient outcomes.  We have come to realize that we have a child who has consistently NOT responded, recovered, or reacted to medical tests and procedures in the typical or expected way.  But to Rees, he may think we’re tricking him.  He may feel that we're not being honest.  He may wonder about whether or not he can really trust us.

Each time he has an appointment or needs a procedure, he wants to know the details and then he wants to go over it again and again.  I don’t know why or what exactly it is that he is trying to ensure ... but this is his way.  Each time, the only thing we've been able to accurately state is that we will be there for him, we will hold his hand, and we will take care of him.  We hope that over more time, this is what will stand out to him the most.