Recovery

Yesterday, Kenny, Charlie and I were supposed to have gone to Lake Geneva with the Packard Club for a boat ride around the lake and a nice lunch afterwards. We didn't get to go, which bummed us out because we really wanted to take Charlie there for his first boat ride. Next spring, Kenny and I have plans to take Charlie there to enjoy his first boat ride. We went last September for a boat ride there and loved it.







We were supposed to ride this boat...

And see this view of the lake...but it wasn't quite this calm yesterday.

A picture of us from last year on the ride.

And us outside the docks.

Here's what Charlie was going to wear. My Uncle Lloyd's sister Norma MADE this ADORABLE outfit for Charlie. As I put him in it for a photo shoot this morning, I realized he could wear this for Halloween, since he didn't get to for his first boat ride yesterday.

He looks a little like a "drunk on his bottle" sailor in this one!

He's so happy in the morning!

Sweet Sailor Charlie!!!

Instead of all of the Lake Geneva stuff, Charlie and I headed to Northwestern to visit Kenny. Charlie did really well, but Kenny was pretty tired, although glad to see Charlie. Because Kenny has to be flat on his back, he couldn't really do much with Charlie other than look at him. He held his hand a little and kissed him when they sat him up for lunch.

Joan came to visit Kenny and being the wonderful sister she is, she took Charlie back to her house for the afternoon to play with his cousins. He had a wonderful time and it allowed me to focus on Kenny. I realized yesterday that I can't take care of both Charlie and Kenny at the same time, at least when Kenny is in the hospital. I need to focus on Kenny, encouraging him, helping him and being his support so that he continues to make progress. I also realized it's much harder on me to see Charlie for short periods of time and then have to leave again, so I'm going to stay at Joan's again so that I can focus on Kenny. Charlie is in good hands with my mom and doesn't really realize that Kenny and I are gone. He's just happy to see us when we get back home.

Overall, the doctors are just taking it day by day with Kenny. He's doing ok, and this particular recovery is a slow process. It's a delicate balance of draining the CSF from his brain at the right speed so that it overtakes the air in his ventricles, but not too fast because that could damage the patch work they did in his nose last Thursday. As I said, Kenny's really tired and maybe it's better that he's sleeping alot right now...I know it could be his body's way of healing.