Carter's Dream Garden

Great News! (and I am basically cutting/pasting what Courtney emailed me earlier without my normal "spin" on things, due to the fact that I am working very hard on making sure that Saturday's event is a HUGELY successful one for the Harris family!)

Carter is off the vent (that typically accompanies the Trache). After being off all day yesterday, they put him back on last night. Although he was fine, he did not sleep much. Skip believes that he can't sleep with it on. When they took it off at 7:00am this morning, it was instantaneous...he went right to sleep. They decided that he is ready to be off for good...YAY!!! Everyone is amazed that he is coming off so early....the nurse today told Courtney that it is normally AT LEAST a week before children Carter's age are taken off the vent...she also said that they keep them heavily sedated and paralyzed for a week normally but because he is doing so well, they did not!!! His blood counts are great....white blood cells are as good as yours and mine, red blood cells are almost there.....platelets are still a little low so they are holding off treatment for tomorrow...his are 71 and really should be at least 75 for the AVASTIN (the next step in his treatment plan). He is sleeping peacefully now after 3 nights of barely any sleep....he woke up briefly when Courtney arrived back at the hospital and was VERY happy to see her (after being @ home in the "Burg" with Caroline, who had Strep Throat - can't take that around Carter Man!!).

I got an email from CeCee (for those of you that don't know who that is, it is Courtney's Mom/Carter's "Grandma CeCee") who told me a funny story:

CeCee's husband, Tom (Carter's "Gagee") talked with Carter yesterday about creating a garden this summer out back of Carter Man's house. Gagee wanted Carter's input and this is what he wants (and he was VERY specific):

First and foremost - Carter wants NO SQUASH!! (pretty typical for a 5 yr old!) He wants tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and peppers with a row of sunflowers right down the middle. I'm thinking Carter Man needs to come landscape my yard because that sounds really pretty!

Carter's Daddy, Skip joked that if Bubbie (Carter's Uncle Chad) had his way, it would be a "Beer Garden" - well this just made Carter grin all over himself!