37 hours in: Amazing.

Surgery started at 9:30 yesterday (Monday) morning. I'm writing this at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday night. Zyle has made absolutely amazing progress, from my point of view. He has gotten out of the turban, he's off several of the tubes and indignities he had to submit to earlier, he's (finally!) started to drink some liquids, and he no longer is surrounded by machines that go Bing.

After surgery yesterday, he fairly constantly fussed in his sleep, all the way until this morning. No more than 8 or so minutes at a time without fussing. I suspected that this had as much to do with all the poking and tape as with any real pain, and I think that suspicion was borne out after the removal of the head bandages. With reduced morphine came reduced itching, so he has gotten better sleep. He is much better rested now.

He has been up playing a couple times, though he hasn't yet given us a big smile. His eyes are still rather swollen, and the left side of his body is more swollen than the right. We frequently flash the ASL sign for I Love You in our family, and Zyle's modification of this is to show just his index finger and thumb (he doesn't have the pinky raise yet). He did that to Seth early this afternoon. He's also waved nonchalantly a couple times as nurses walked in, and he made a couple vocal comments of a nonspecific nature. He clapped when people on TV clapped.

He reaches for us and wants to be held. He has submitted to ointment on his incision site with no protest. He continues to try to get the name bracelet and other entrapments off his body, but he's calmer about them in general.

Morphine was every two hours when we first started. He had it twice today: 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. His heart rate yesterday was above 200 a couple of times, and it's been hovering in the 120s and 130s today. His pulse oxygen, which yesterday was dipping into the 80s and even a couple of 70s, is now sticking to 100%.

He really is making incredible progress.