Nibbling

He had a few bites of food this morning.

Did the same thing yesterday morning.

Alex got him to eat a little bit of canned food the evening before that.

So that’s progress.

His neck – the bandage, the blue hold-it-all-in-place, won’t-yank-out-any-hair tape, and the tube – they look a mess, I know.

But I don’t mind.  I take it as a good sign.

He’s more active, for one thing.  Not running around the house, but showing up where we are, meandering up and down the stairs.

He doesn’t protest when it’s time for his feeding tube sessions.  Just kind of settles down comfortably and waits it out.  And enjoys the attention.

I got home from work yesterday and the kids were doing the feeding.  They were in Alex’s room, door shut, and they were singing.  Softly.  The “dum dum dum da-da dum dum…” lead-in to Queen’s “Pressure.”  But their version copied the rendition from Happy Feet Two.  They even broke into a bit of harmony. 

It was so sweet.

We have lost several of the little end pieces that go on the feeding tube.  They come loose, Scratchy gets annoyed with the tube hitting him in the back of the head, shakes his head violently, and the end piece flies out.  There are several of them somewhere in this house.  Bill only found one.

Rather than bother getting replacements any more, we are now just crimping the end of the tube and wrapping it in bandage tape.  I’ve also re-positioned the tube and taped it in place so that it doesn’t annoy him as much. 

He’s got a bandage change scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and they’ll probably re-check his liver.  Last week his numbers hadn’t gone down, but they weren’t surprised – it hadn’t even been a week when they checked.  I’m hoping things are different this time.  He still looks jaundiced, but he’s not lethargic, he grooms himself, he’s interested in eating on his own, he greets us with little meows.

So we’ll see.  But that’s the update for today.

I want to be excited…but I’m afraid to just yet.

Interestingly enough, Alex gets that.  He’s happy with every little back-to-his-old-self thing Scratchy does, but he told me he knows Scratchy’s not in the clear yet.

We are cautiously optimistic.