Skipping to today

Today is April 26,2009 and it is 2:09 PM. I want to go ahead and skip to today, if you don't mind. We can talk about what happened on the 23rd of April, later.

The nurse woke me up at 1:45am in the morning. That is because his eyes were opening. Her name is nurse Jill. She woke me up to tell me his eyes had opened, and I guess I shouldn't tell you that I slapped Joe to wake him up, but I did. We held his hands and began talking to him for about an hour until about 2:45 in the morning.

Wait, let's backtrack. I want to talk about what the doctor told me yesterday. She said that the chances of him recovering are very low, actually that he WILL NOT recover at all, but he will be ALIVE. That he will be alive but will be a living vegetable... and "he will never be your baby again and when he opens his eyes he will not see you, wont recognise you, he may never walk again, may never talk again, and he will need a tracheotomy" (told us his gag reflex was not working and the mucus could drown him therefore the tracheotomy will clear it out). She had horrible bedside manor and pretty much told Joe and I that our son Devyn will never recover.

Back to today, back to 2:45 AM. At this point, nurse Jill thinks that he was HEARING us, but that his eyes were only opening because of nerve reaction. The eyes were fluttering more than open. She then placed her hand on his belly and told him that everything was okay. His eyes then popped wide open and he followed her with his eyes. His pupils are no longer at a pin point. Throughout the day I have been holding his hands, talking to him, and singing this song that I have been singing to him since he was born. He is reacting to me. He has opened his eyes several times. It is still a critical time, and we must not stimulate him too much at this point, but I am extremely hopeful.

They are going to fit Devyn's feet today for Hightops to keep the footdrop from occurring. They are going to have to make special shoes because the hightops we bought him did not work. Joey, our 12 year old came to see him today. Joey is he one who saved Devyn's life. He pulled him out of the water. I have to stop and say that most adults wouldn't have reacted that fast. Most people would go into shock. He told us today that he is happy everyone is praising his heroism today, but that he cannot stop thinking about what actually happened. He doesn't ever want to swim again. He feels so guilty. Joe and I have told him over and over how much of a hero he is. In mass this morning, they pulled him up and everyone praised him for how heroic he is. I can only hope and pray that he gains the strength to know how heroic he really is.

Devyn is sleeping now, they no longer have him sedated, but they do have a lot of medication in him. He is still on life support, but is breathing on his own. It is giving him 8 breaths per minute, but as the 8 breaths occur, he is breathing on his own as well. Therefore, he was on life support 100% and now he is just using it as a supplement. His oxygen is also down to 21% and was at 100%. They are keeping it on him just to make sure that his blood is carrying enough oxygen throughout his body and to his brain. They said it is going to take a lot of medicine and a lot of time. Dr Riggs (the nice doctor) came in today (on his day off) and said that he is doing a lot better. He said it very clear and loud, and I believe him..

"The only one who is going to show us what he can do is him"

Today's word is Faith.

Until tonight,

Nikki (& Joe) Costanzo