1/3 - On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...(mostly) continuous dialysis (CVVH) and more baby steps.

Sam keeps heading in the right direction a little bit at a time. The CVVH has been running pretty well. With the heparin, the machine is running for just about 24 hours before they need to replace the filter. That's a big improvement, although longer would be better. They're not going to have time to really figure that out because surgery is happening tomorrow, unless something new happens to prevent it. From what I've heard, the bone flap is officially Sam's and they are ready to proceed. The surgery is scheduled for 7:30am and will last about 2-3 hours. They'll come get him a little before that to prep him. Your prayers during and around that time are so appreciated. No one with whom I've spoken seems to be anticipating complications, but this is brain surgery on the boy that has pushed the limits of just about every intervention they've tried. It's going to be an excruciating wait for us until he's out of surgery and we know things went well.

As for everything else, he seems to be holding his own. His eyes are open more often, and he's moved all of his extremities. Last night, he squeezed my hand with his left hand. It wasn't necessarily 'purposeful' but it was the first time I'd seen that since the day this all began. Also, the nurse was cleaning his face today and he turned his face away from her pretty quickly. I took that as pretty purposeful since he positively hates that. 

I've been playing more music for him today. Last night, I played the Clark choir's performance of Sleep by Eric Whitacre, and today it was the recording of Aaron's solo in the Libera Me movement of the Fauré Requiem. After the latter, he was out like a light. Other than that, I have been alternating between John Rutter and Billy Joel. Young Mr. Loeffler certainly has a very eclectic taste in music. He loves Billy Joel almost as much as he loves John Rutter, and he probably knows the words to most of his songs better than I do. (Do I have to forfeit my New-Yorker-to-the-Core Card now?) The nurse and I were jammin' to We Didn't Start the Fire, but not surprisingly, she wasn't as down with the Rutter Gloria. She'll probably be dreaming about it by the time we leave the wing, though. I'm pretty sure Sam will be pleased with that.

Prayer requests for today--and into tomorrow...the big one of course is that the surgery goes well with no complications. We are praying that God continues to give this medical team the wisdom and skill to pull Sam through this, and that his systems can handle all that is involved with the surgery and post-op recovery. Also during this time, if you could keep us in mind as well, we're potentially going to be a hot mess, and the calmer we stay, the better. Thank you, friends for your endless support and love. 

Because I talked so much about music today, and because it is so integral to our family, today's picture is of the super musicians in our family from the All Region Concert in 2014.