2/10 10:15 pm

Ethan has noticed some odd little changes in himself since he has become more aware. I did read that There can be changes of personality, preferences, alterations is emotions/mood, changes in identity and even some people report having memories of the donors life.  Scientists think it could be due to transferring of cellular memory. Sure...sounds scientific and believable.

Ethan has noticed he doesn’t enjoy sweets as much as he used to. This is the kid who had ice cream daily. He is turning down ice cream in favor of fresh fruit and vegetables. He has never really enjoyed cucumbers. The other day I was eating a salad with cucumbers and Ethan asked if he could have one. I whipped my head around to see if he was joking. He ate it and liked it.

I have noticed that he likes to hug more. He is able to talk to strangers a little easier. Just small, subtle changes that could be explained away by a traumatic event, or maturing or who knows what the donor was like.

One of the nurses on the floor brought in her magic bullet blender for us to use and picked us up a ton of fruit so Ethan can have his smoothies. She even got some Greek yogurt and we used whole milk so it is healthy with a dash beef cake building material. This was so extra thoughtful and went above and beyond any job requirement could ever state. 

He had his smoothie and thought it was so good and again I am so floored by everyone’s generosity to bring a smile to Ethan’s face as well as my own.

Please make it a point to go out of your way and do something kind for someone. It is contagious.

Ethan took a nice restful nap with a gut full of smoothie all happy in his belly.  He woke up and ate a little lunch and we helped him in his wheelchair. He sat at the edge of the bed. He said he could feel every muscle clenching as he tried to sit up straight. He almost made a full minute, unassisted. Sitting up.

He also got to have his feeding tube (that went into his intestines) pulled back a little so it is now going into his stomach. Let’s see if he can process his feeds. It will be a stomach boot camp. The first time it was backed up it wasn’t far enough. They discovered this via xray and had to back it up some more. That too was not far enough and we are going to wait until morning to back it up again and rexray.  Ethan won’t need to dress up for Halloween this year...he will just be glowing. 

Ethan held his head up on his own for longer in the chair. He was inspecting the model car he wants to build as well as did a bit of coloring. He was using his fine motor skills which was great.

Ethan got his picc line dressing changed. That isn’t and easy thing. It takes a while and is uncomfortable. They have to remove the adhesive and it pulls at the skin. Then basically they apply alcohol pads to the sensitive skin and it burns. He also had his dialysis pressure bandage removed as well as the the dressing change which again is uncomfortable. 

He ate dinner and then wanted to FaceTime Jesney. It is so nice to see them both smiling again. Ethan was cracking the jokes too. He showed Jesney his satchel of beads. 

Ethan had his bath and was tucked into bed. I looked at him all cozy in bed and a little teary eyed. Wow! I can’t believe he survived. Holy shit! It wasn’t too long ago that I would tuck him into bed and hope that nothing would go wrong. Sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn’t. Who knows what the universe has in store for him, but it must be important.

I am so proud of him.

Big news for today.....we are down to five pumps....as Freddy Mercury would say.....another one bites the dust.