January 24 Updates

1:04 PM, EST

Things are going moderately well today. Charlotte is awake and laughing at Uncle Vance bumping his head on the bed railings. There was one instance, however, when Vance told a particularly un-funny joke and Charlotte was brutal in her silence! :-) Aunt B asked her if Uncle Vance's joke was funny and she somberly shook her head "no." It really wasn't very funny. Go Charlotte!

One of the neurosurgeons came in to peek at the wound and he was very happy with how it looked.
I sat in on the rounds with the nurses and Dr.s and although 80-90% of it was completely over my head, I could at least pull out that there are things they were checking every hour that they will now only have to check once a day or only if they see a warning sign, her vitals are getting so strong.
Getting better all the time.

9:40 PM, CST

I taught my Saturday classes and it was so good to see the kids. Thanks to all the parents who asked about Charlotte (and us). We really feel the love and as I think about it, this helps affirm to me that we are the business owners we wanted to be: more than just "the people that run things" but those that are truly involved in the lives of our customers. It is clear that Romp n' Roll is more than just a place to sing, dance, play, and have fun. We are a family. I hope that someday soon we will be able to use our business to give back to those that are giving so much to us right now.

Thank you especially to the mommy that wanted to remain anonymous. Your gift was well received and I am gracious! HUGS!

Charlotte has been pretty tired today but still alert. She told me today that she "wanted some Chick-fil-A". Still has the NG tube because we have to wait for the lazy speech therapist to come and evaluate her ;-)

We had some very nice visits from friends and family today. Her preschool teacher came by and brought a chimpanzee (with a gauze wrapped head!) and many cards from the kids. So sweet!
The freezer has been delivered to our house (thanks again, Hanover Montessori). so anyone who was interested in helping with meals is welcome to bring frozen or ready-to freeze items by the house. We can coordinate. FYI, Becky has been having trouble with her voicemail on her cell phone so if you have left a message and she did not get back to you, please call again. You can also call our home number or romp n' roll and we will get in touch with you.

I guess I will sign off for tonight. We will see what the night has in store for us...
Rachel

1:39 PM, EST

To add to Rachel's post...As bad as last night was, today was great. Charlotte interacted with her visitors and showed good improvement on her left side. We had great care from the nurses today and the awful pull-out sleeping chair in the room was graciously replaced with one that is even better than the one in our original room.

Looks like the "hemovac" (?) tube and contraption will be taken out of her head soon (tonight maybe) and her catheter might come out as well.

She played extensively with the princess computer Audrey gave her. We developed a system whereby she used our fingers (dad's and Uncle Vance's) as poking tools and showed us what buttons to push. She was usually correct

The pain medication has shown a tendency to wear off every three hours almost on the dot but when I left her at about 9pm which was 3 1/2 hours after her last dose, she seemed pretty mellow (asleep actually).

Sarah is the adorable red-haired girl we've been getting to know in the lounge. She has a plethora of conditions that actually frightened me just to hear about them but, like with most kids, she was laughing and eating and enjoying the aquarium last time I saw her.

Thanks to Jody for the killer crab cake sandwich she brought me for lunch.

I'm stopping by St. James The Less Church tomorrow (10:00am service) to thank everyone for their support and to be available to the children in the nursery if they have any questions about Charlotte. Might help any anxiety they're feeling. Then it's back off to the hospital (after a little supply shopping) for another day/night of waiting.

Uncle Vance leaves tomorrow for Colorado. Thanks for all your help Bro! Loved seeing you. Thanks for making CJ laugh.

Many people are wondering what they can do to help when they can't cover shifts at Romp n' Roll, wash laundry (already done), provide meals, or chauffeur around out of town visitors. Rachel and I came up with an idea. The small, but very appreciated cash donations we've received have come in handy to fill in little gaps here and there so we thought that if anyone wanted to donate $5 to Charlotte's savings account, we would use that for things like gas and other intangibles connected to her recovery not paid by insurance. We promise not to spend it on yachts, trips to Bermuda, or $35 million condos in Manhattan. Anything not used long-term would simply be applied to CJ's college fund. Just a suggestion for anyone who wants to help but can't put their finger on the way to do it. Thanks in advance.

Now I absolutely HAVE to get to bed!
Rog