An unbelievable week...

there's daddy's little helper w/ our first dressing change

sorry I know it's a little gory to look at but man oh man is that impressive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hadn't seen this yet so you can imagine it took my breath away when I removed the dressing. It was Bri's idea to take the pictures.

Thank you all so much for all your words of love and encouragement on my blog. I've enjoyed reading all of them to Brian over this recovery period. We are home now, which is just incredible I know! But the truth is all they were doing in the hospital was oral medications and allowing rest. I can do that here and keep him much cleaner and at less risk for getting an infection. The more time he spent in that busy unit w/ MRSA patients everywhere the higher risk he was to pick something up. All in all though we really had incredible care at UVA. We couldn't have been more pleased w/ the hospital and it's staff. Every nurse, aid and even our docs were just so sweet and compassionate. The neuro surgeon came around eventually and the truth is we really don't care about his bedside manor, just that he's good w/ a knife inside the skull right?!? Brian's up and recovering because he's a skilled surgeon and God was with him in that OR. Sooooo, Brian is loving his new staff of "the best looking 2 nurses he's ever seen" w/ me and the Bit taking over his care. :) We got home yesterday afternoon and had an uneventful commute which was a God send. He slept for most of the evening and has been comfortable on his own couch ever since. His pain's doing great, his vision is slowly improving but will take time and his taste buds are well still about the same. He's just learning things that have some flavor. He has said he has some fleeting echo sensations in that left ear which we are encouraged by that he's hearing some voices at all although distorted. We'll see, time will tell. They told us at least a week for the swelling to go down and we can have any idea what may be left. His spirits are so much more up now then before and as we speak he's answering a morning assessment questionnaire w/ a Bit on his belly and watching what he can see of Fox News. Good mental picture huh!? I'm enjoying it too. :) Abigail is being so precious and gentle w/ him. She just loves to sit and snuggle up next to him. She'll bring him his little cup of meds and a drink when I hand them to her. And in a minute we are going to do her first dressing change. What a nurse she is already! So thanks again for all of you who have carried this with us. It's meant a lot to read your thoughts and know we had so much support through this. Brian and I love you all lots and want you to know we thank God for our sweet friends and family!!!!!!!