Recovery IV

There are many challenges for those who are limited to the horizontal plane. A huge number of the things that we daily take for granted require movement on multiple planes simultaneously. So Megan in her present state of flatness is growing restless, looking forward to every opportunity to stand up for a minute. Our threshold for what qualifies as entertainment is being recalibrated. Our daily visits from Dr. Delia are a welcome social hour. A most unexpected feature in a highly qualified specialist. He is becoming a friend, and there is no doubt that he will be on our Christmas card list, or that he will continue to be interested in the boys' well being for a long time. It is also becoming less of a mystery that we have found a disproportionate number of TTTS twins with forms of his name Julian.

Our visits from every nurse have been at the very least pleasant. Time passes relatively quickly between visits, sponge baths, e-mails, phone calls, good books and bad TV. One very unexpected highlight now 3 days running has been our mid morning visit from Rosie. I doubt that many consider her a critical part of our recovery. She is, no doubt, at the low end of St. Joseph's pay scales. Her work is "menial", but she is not. To us her work has little to do with the mopping of the floor or emptying of our trash. Rosie is a grandma, an optimist, a pray-er, and a janitor. She held her preemie twin granddaughters in the palms of her hand and says that it is better when they are born small because you get to celebrate every ounce that they grow. Her voice is calm and sweet. She speaks slowly and doesn't stop working while she tells Megan "dis is your glory time now, you don't start feelin guilty now, you jes tek it in. you jes think bout all deh good dats gonna come outta dis now, you gonna hold der little fingers and there little wigglin toes" and the mop keeps moving. She must clean a lot of rooms, and talk to a lot of sick people, because she doesn't linger long. If I had to guess I would bet that as she cleans floors and toilets over and over, she prays for all of them. I'm sure she prays for our boys.

Rosie is not the only one who loves the unborn here. It is a long way from the highly respected NICU at UCLA where it is all too well known that it is very easy to get pregnant. Much easier than fixing a difficult pregnancy. Just like it is easier to buy a new microwave than to pay to fix your old one. It is easy to get advice to terminate. Here, we have seen pictures of 1 year old TTTS twins who's parents were told that there was not hope for their pregnancy, and that they should terminate. Here our boys have advocates outside of their own parents. One nurse summed up the pervasive attitude nicely: "Every one is Precious."

As the recovery continues we look forward to little things like the ability to take a shower and big things like the progress of our boys. Megan has had more discomfort today with nausea and headaches and some bedridden frustration. All of which our Dr. assures are quite normal. We can hardly wait to be at home, and have visits from our own friends and family. In the meantime your prayers are so valuable to us. Like the unseen babies, each one is precious.