Nov. 20 6:48 p.m.

I'm so sorry I haven't written in a couple of days. I've had a couple of hard days but things are good. Levi is eating more. I asked if they could bring him between meal snacks and they thought that might be a good idea. He probably had a little more than 1,000 calories today. He needs to have 2,000 in order to get the tube out. His swallow test still wasn't good. He can't drink liquids unless they are thickened because they go down the wrong way and he doesn't know it, he doesn't cough it out. I think he is doing better with the thickening stuff though. He tolerates it in Sprite and in the juice from the fruit cup.

David and I went for a walk with Levi and John (the nurse) last night to the gift shop. Levi seemed to enjoy himself but he got tired quickly. Really, I guess it wasn't that quickly. He went from his room to the elevator then to the shop and all around it before he had to sit down. Not bad actually. David bought a 3Musketeers candy bar and Levi was teasing him about giving it to him. I asked him if he really wanted one and he said he would try it. So David went back and bought two more. Levi ate about 1/4 of one at that time and about 1/3 of the other one today.

He also ate one of the fruit cups from Cookietree and a couple of cups of thickened Sprite. It was a good night!

Levi is also clearing a little more each day but he is still confused about why he has to stay there. He is always talking about going somewhere. He was going to get ready to go Christmas shopping with us yesterday, thus the trip to the gift shop. He still forgets a lot from hour to hour but I think he is remembering more than he is forgetting. They have him in what I call a drug induced stage 5. Stage 4 and 5 are very similar except for the agitation and they are giving him meds for that.

In their Tuesday meeting they decided to keep Levi another week. They will review again this coming Tuesday.

He has a pass for Saturday so we can really go out to do something. Maybe shop or go to lunch. The recreation therapist will go with us and teach us how to get him in and out of a car, etc. It is as much about teaching us how to assist as it is about seeing how he does in public. (Yikes, we'll be sure he gets his meds that day!) He keeps saying he is going to go do his cleaning jobs but if we give him about an hour notice he can make sure he gets done to have lunch with us. He also wants a few hours off to go into work to catch up on a few things because "I haven't been there for 6 weeks". He asks me every day "what day is this for you guys?" He says we are on different days.

He yelled at David about his homework so I'm not sure if his meds were wearing off or if that was a moment of normalcy. (lol)

We have been very blessed. It seems our requests have been in accordance with the Lord's will. It doesn't always work out that way. A very sweet lady I worked with at Farnsworth
Elem. was found at the foot of her stairs last Saturday. They did CPR and transported her to IMED. She has been in the ICU where they did tests to determine if there were any brain waves. Sadly there were none. She was disconnected from life support today. I don't know why one family has a good outcome and another doesn't, especially when she was very needed by her family. Of course we know that everything we experience in life is necessary for own exaltation and the Lord certainly knows best. He can see the finish line that for us is obscured by daily life. He knows what's on the path ahead of us and we do best when we place out trust in Him. My thoughts and prayers are with Julie's family tonight.

To all of you, thank you for your prayers and visits. I know that sometimes it is difficult to understand what he is saying but I know he really enjoys the visits. His hours are sometimes very long and his long to do list weighs on him so visits are also a great distraction.

Thanks again to everyone.