What blue eyes you have!

~This blog was from Friday night..Just now getting to post it~

As I type, I am now at home in the peace and quiet of the living room and all I hear is the television playing softly in the background. Today has been a pretty busy day and I have to say I am tired. I can only imagine how my parents are feeling b/c this is day 23 of Uncle Petey being in the hospital. When a loved one is in the NICU, you only get to visit them 4 times a day. And during the visits, you can only stay back about 20-25 minutes. All of this is totally understandable due to the severity of the patients, but it makes for a very long day when you try to be there for all visits. I have to say I am very impressed with Huntsville Hospital..they have a newer waiting room that has large comfy chairs, a sign-in desk, nice break area, lockers to store things, tvs, computers and wireless access. The atmosphere is so chaotic though and people are coming and going and visiting with families..You can see the pain, stress and sheer tiredness in most of their eyes. Some making difficult decisions for their families, some so sad because they just do not know what tomorrow holds. This morning started off kind of slow. Mom and Dad headed down because the doctor wanted to meet with them at 8:30. Aunt and Uncle were there as well. He basically told them they will have to make a decision that would require a few things from them. They did decide to go ahead and take the ventilator off sometime early this week..and put in him a tracheotomy. This will be a more permanent fixture to help him breath. My cousin asked him if he wanted that in and he shook his head yes..so it helps to know that we are doing what he wants.
I and my Uncle have not always had the best of relationships. We have not always seen eye to eye on situations and that is okay. That is what makes each of us different and special and makes the world a unique place to live. No matter how he has felt, or how I have felt, one thing is for sure, I have never stopped loving him! He is my uncle and will always be! I have held off coming due to being sick, and him staying about the same..and have prayed that the Lord would let me see him and talk to him before anything were to happen. I had the opportunity today and I thank HIM for that! When I first went in, he was pretty dazed and on some pain medication that seemed to make focusing hard. He would just barely look at us and that was pretty upsetting for me. To see him laying there in that condition was very discouraging, but on the upward bound, his vitals and everything seemed good. I looked into his eyes, got to tell him I love him and have been praying for him..and then I lost it, which couldn’t be good for him, so I excused myself. The second time I went back, I had gained composure and told him who I was, and he nodded. He knew me, he squinted his eyes and I saw a sweet, gentle spirit in his bright blue eyes! Ya’ll, I have never noticed how blue his eyes were. For some reason, I was always thinking they were green, but today, they had such a beautiful bright blue shade and no longer did the tubes, the beeping of machines or the agitation he seemed to be having even to be a factor. He was looking at me and knew that I love him and am praying daily and have all of you, my faithful blog friends, facebook and MySpace praying as well. And for that and for that moment, I am thankful! I pray that he will be alert tomorrow as well and I can tell him I love him all over again!

Tonight his night nurse was making rounds and I thought wow, she looks so familiar..and I told that to mom and dad. She came in the room and she said, “I know you”…we all laughed b/c I had just said the same thing. After we got to talking, she was one of dad’s nurses when he had his accident and as a matter of fact, she went and got Starbuck’s Coffee for us one night! It was such a joy to talk with her and for us to finally figure out how we knew each other. Such a small world, but I feel good about her taking care of him tonight..she gave him a little “cocktail” to make him sleep and rest tonight. He was resting last visit and for that ~We are thankful!~ Rest is what he needs right now…Goodnight!!!