Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our fans. I discovered recently that when I take a day off people start to worry. I would like to apologize to all of you who started to think the worst yesterday because I did not post on Saturday night, the truth of the matter is I was really tired and didn't have much to say. I was operating on the premise that no news is good news, and didn't think anyone would notice. I also thought that I would be able to get it done first thing in the morning. It turns out that first thing in the morning Emily generally has other plans for what I should be doing, and blogging is not a part of her plans.



Joseph had a very quiet New Years Eve. He did not have any procedures yesterday and managed to stay stable for the whole day. His "silo" looked good (good being a general term, I don't know that it is ever good to keep your internal organs "external") and remained fluid free for the better part of the day. It is time, I think, to talk a little about the "silo" (I think that from this point forward I am going to type silo without the quotes because they are starting to annoy me, so when you read silo, know that I am really saying "silo"). Joseph's silo is a little plastic bag, held up with a strap tied over his bed. Inside it he keeps what remains of his small intestine. It turns out to be a good thing that he has chosen to do this. Why, you ask? Well, they do a lot of testing Joseph's blood, many of these tests tell the doctors how he is doing. Joseph however has not been very forthcoming with some of this information. Most of the time when someone has tissue that is breaking down it is apparent in the blood tests, this has not been happening with his tests. If his bowel was neatly placed inside his body, we would not know about the problem he has been having getting blood and oxygen to it.



Today, Joseph had a pretty easy day like yesterday. This morning at around 8:30 am Dr Statter removed only 1 cm from his bowel. The rest of the day they were just letting him chill, while they played with the settings on his vent, his oxygen, his nitrous, and his meds to see how he responded. All in all it was a pretty good day.



Emily spent the day sleeping off the effects of her very first New Years Eve not a party. She was pretty hung over this morning because she hit the bottle pretty hard last night. She was definitely the hit of the party and stole several hearts. She was very excited about the Green Bay victory over the evil Chicago Bears, and had a great time soaking up the snuggles being offered by everyone in attendance, even the host fell under her spell. Emily joined us all in a Champagne toast and had many guys fighting over who got to kiss the cute blond at midnight. She agreed with us that Carson Daly has no discernible talent and could not figure out why people in New York City got to countdown for New Years in the central time zone. It was really good to get out last night, and Emily enjoyed it too.