January 17th, 2011 by MIchelle

It’s 4:49 AM. About an hour ago, Paul let Danny wake up a bit. It was the most lively we’ve seen him yet. With the bed raised up, almost to the point of looking like a big comfy chair, Danny sat with his legs crossed. His neck was pretty stiff so he couldn’t move it around as much as he was trying to, but his eyes met with ours when we spoke to him. I showed him a hat that I made and asked him if he liked it, he nodded yes. When I took the hat off to put my other hat on I apologized for my messy hair and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he didn’t mind. He wrapped his right arm around me and rubbed my back. I told him I couldn’t wait to cuddle with him and he pulled me closer. While all of this was happening, Conor and Paul were in the bathroom. I was pretty much focussed on Danny the whole time, but when I realized that it had been a few minutes since Conor and Paul had closed the door, I started to wonder (there’s been a lot of talk about male nurses lately). To my surprise the door opened a minute later and Conor had shaved his head! I laughed a ton and I know that if Danny were able to laugh he would have done the same. I’m not sure that Danny realized why Conor had shaved his head, but he gave him his approval with a head nod. It’s amazing that we can communicate with him on some level now. We can ask him if he’s in pain or if he is uncomfortable. When he wanted a drink of water earlier he raised his hand to his mouth as if he were drinking something. We couldn’t give him water, but we soaked a sponge in ice water and placed it in his mouth…he didn’t like that very much. These last couple of days have been something to look forward to. Danny’s improvements seem amazing since it was only a few days ago that his eyes were still shut and the nuero exams consisted of squeezing hands and pinching his toes to get a reaction. Love you Danny, thanks for putting a smile all our faces!

-Michelle