About Last Night

Last night was very good. Jo Ann and Patricia took the night off and headed home to shower, relax and get a full night of sleep. Jo Ann hadn't left CHLA since we arrived on Wednesday morning. After they left, Pablo and I snuggled up in his bed. Josh frmo Dangerbird brought us—you'll never guess?—Malo for dinner. Hrishi was working late in the office as well, and ran up top our house to pick up my night back and to download the season premiere of the excellent new show 'SouthLAnd.' Hrishi dropped the bag at the front door of the ICU. He is getting over a cold and was not allowed in.

After all that stuff got sorted, P wanted to hear a story about something we will do when his body is back to normal. Of course, I chose a story about riding bikes up in the San Gabriel Mountains. I told him we will drive up and pull over wherever he wants. We can watch the giant hawks circling like jets, and keep an eye out for snakes or lizards or the grand prize—mountain lions. We might even see a mine shaft. That's about as far as I got before P's lid started dimming. He was snoring in no time. for hours, I watched the electronic monitor document the moves of his heart rate. It raced up and coasted down as he dreamt the night away.

Before Jo Ann left, P told us he was having a hard time breathing. 15 minutes later, he said it was fine. An hour later, Jo Ann called from home and asked that I order a chest X-ray. So I did. No point messing around. Besides, how often can you walk out and ask someone to have the X-ray guy come over and take a snapshot of your son's chest and be taken seriously? 20 minutes later the X-techs were up in our room with their Tron-like machine. The bummer was that we had to wake P, slip an X-ray slate underneath him, and lay him on his back. Pablo, like most humans, does not like to be woken from a deep sleep. Especially with two unknown dudes in the room and a robotic eye hovering above his body. One day he's going to write a great follow up to Styx 'Mr Roboto' or Judas Priest 'Electric Eye.' When he does, the song will have a happy conclusion: his X-ray showed his lungs lookin great. In fact, they looked better than they did on Wednesday.

After the X-ray scene ended, P fell right back to sleep and didn't wake until 8:30.

Sometime last night before we hit the hay, a couple of our homegirl nurses (don't want to name them cos they might get in trouble for leaving their sector of the star ship) dropped in on me + P in ICU room K. They said a bed would be opening today in 4 West. The move outta the ICU and up two floors to 4 West is our single goal today. If we get our own room, all the better. 4 West is our home. For real.

One last detail before I jump on my bike: Pablo's blood test came back negative for strep again today! His platelets are building nicely. White blood cells are still hovering around zero. This is a game of inches. So we'll take the incremental goodness and run.

Will check in later today.

Have a great Saturday. WE THANK ALL OF YOU for writing comments, emails, texts. Even if we do not respond, we cherish each message. Rays of light to remind us we are not alone and that Pablo is loved.