Sunday – April 9, 2006
St. Joseph Medical Center
49 Days into the ordeal
Specialty Care Hospital
Phoenix, AZ
Sherry, baby Michael, and I drove to Phoenix Saturday morning for Michael’s first visit to be reunited
with his Mother. There is something about a sunny, Saturday morning drive in an air-conditioned Honda that gets Michael every time. Sheep. It’s the sheep. Those fuzzy pillow-soft fence jumpers that took him with them to Zzzzzzzzzz City. Although Sherry was pointing out to Michael the sand, cactus, rocks, occasional hawk (“painting lazy circles in the sky”) and other brown and various shades of brown things that might interest to him… it was the sheep that won the day as he simply, could not break his attraction with the with the white, wooly fence jumpers with black numbers painted on their sides. He slept, and even slept after we all safely arrived at St. Joe’s. He slept during the stroller ride through the parking garage, and slept as we met his father outside the parking garage, and the brief stroll to the hospital proper, and continued to sleep in the elevator ride all the way up to the 3rd floor where the Specialty Care Hospital is located. And, on to his Mother’s room he slept through the first part of his with visit.Lisa looked beautiful. There are no visible after effects of the Stevens-Johnson syndrome on her face. Her skin had a sweet youthfulness and her big blue eyes fascinated me for their beauty. Richard announced our presence to Lisa. He didn’t play any games with her, like “guess who’s here?” he simply, in a quiet reassuring, tender voice said, “Lisa… darling, Michael is here, and I’m placing him in your arms.” It was a beautiful scene.
Michael continued to sleep in his mother’s arms for a few minutes. Then he slowly started to awaken… stretched, raised his little arms over his head and touched his mother’s face. Then he made a little coughing sound, opened his eyes and told everyone in the room and down the hall that he wanted to eat. Sherry took him then, and Michael did what he does best, drain a full 6 ounces of Similac without hardly a burp. While he drinks, he makes soft, little noises, as if the say, “Yummmmy this is good, really good.” And, “Don’t you even think about blotting the milk from my mouth and chin, if removing that bottle is involved. So Sherry didn’t and we walked outside of Lisa’s room.
Then, Richard and Rebecca, Lisa’s charge nurse, and another nurse prepa
red Lisa for a walk outside of the hospital. They placed her into a chair. The special chair supports her body to enable her to sit upright. The chair makes it possible to move her about for that import breath of fresh, outside air and sunlight. Lisa has been in the healthcare delivery system; bed-ridden since February 23rd and in spite of it, she looks radiant.” Our outside the hospital walk took us under the branches of several yellow, flowering Palo Verde (trees) through which dappled sun light played on the sideway and on Lisa’s shoulders and auburn hair. There was a magic about it as it made her glow wondrously. If we could have heard Spring playing from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons it would have been near ideal. These days we take our pleasure where we can find it.Sherry suggested to Richard that he might keep Michael with him overnight so that the baby could spend more time with his mother. So it was agreed, and drove to Target to pick up a portable travel baby bed for Michael. It provided him with a safe, secure baby bed.
We returned to Oro Valley, took in a restaurant and a movie, and actually didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Who would have thought it? Richard returns home Sunday afternoon, so the “not knowing what to do with ourselves” won’t last too long.
Michael
mlwintory@msn.com
Lisa’s picture was taken January 2, 2006 by Linda Thompson in Norman, Oklahoma. I made (digital camera) the mountain landscape picture from Richard and Lisa’s back patio after a brief rain shower earlier this week.
