Mike continues to entertain the nurses, impress the staff and still has not lost the ability to push Matthew’s buttons. By saying in a whiny voice that his legs don’t work, he needs water, sympathy, etc., he somehow manages to tug at Matt’s heart strings! This won’t last long but in true Michael fashion, he will stretch it to the limit!

On the flip side, Mike continues to struggle with feeling nauseous while transferring and when doing physio. Today the physio-therapist said that this is the first time in 20 years that she has felt guilty about how hard a patient was working. (Mike threw up again during his work out.) Of course that brought a smile to Michael’s face – perhaps another button he could push….

The grafts seem to be healing nicely except for a few areas on the foot and between the toes. He will still have to keep his foot elevated until Sunday but even that should not delay his moving to Glenrose once there is a bed available.

In spite of the struggle to do even the most basic of things, Mike somehow manages to turn it into “fun”. When he was young, before he would go to bed, Neil would pray with him. Michael would ask God to give him a fun, fun, fun, fun, fun (you get the idea) day the next day. Though I don’t doubt his sincerity, it was also a delay tactic! One day, Neil’s Dad said that God sure answers Michael’s prayer because he always seems to have a “fun” day! We may not be having fun days every day but there never ceases to be fun moments.

Even on the lowest days, Michael knows how to melt my heart. One day, when Mike was still in ICU in traction, I was rubbing his arm. He told me how much he loved me. I told him that I loved him, too. He said, “No, Mom. You don’t understand. The words ‘I love you’ don’t come close to capturing how I really feel. There are no words big enough. If I knew the words, I could make a scads of money at Hallmark.”

I think I do understand what you mean, Mike. Any Mom understands when they look at their kids. I don’t think there are words “big” enough to describe how much we love our kids, all of them!

Mike and his dog Max