February 7, 2007 11:00am

It's been a long road since the last post. Presley's face continued to swell even more. I slept in a room for families of patients, and when I got back to the room about 5am, his face was unrecognizable. Both eyes are fully swollen shut. His ears appear recessed due to the swelling around them. His nose is sitting further back then his cheeks, and he is just overall puffy. We are hoping that either has reached it's peak, or is close to it.

The neurosurgeon came in around 8am and immediately removed all the lines and IV's, with the exception of the drain tube from Presley's head. He wanted Dana to hold him without all the excess lines in the way. Immediately, Presley began to eat. This was an unbelievably huge relief, since he has barely eaten anything since the surgery. Based on his eating this morning, they decided to keep the IV out and feel that he will be able to return to an oral pain medication. He was having problems taking it yesterday, so they ended up giving him morphine on a more regular interval. The neurogsurgeon also said the catheter & drain tube could come out. The catheter has been removed, but someone from neurosurgery has to come and remove the drain tube from his head.

On an excellent note, we were moved down to the normal pediatric floor about an hour ago. While it is a little more chaotic and noisy, and we have to share a room, we actually have 2 comfortable chairs. The biggest relief is that they feel Presley is in an acceptable condition not to have to be monitored as closely. The PICU has a 2 to 1 ratio of patients to nurses, the normal pediatric floor is 5 to 1.

Presley is also moving around much more today. Although his eyes are swollen shut, we are pretty sure he is awake some of the time as he is moving his body (kicking his feet and moving his hands around) like he does when he's awake at home. We continue to talk to him and reassure him that we are here.

The "turbin" around his head has been removed as well. I was really scared of what his wound would look like, but it looks much better than I expected. The incision runs ear to ear and curves some to allow the hair to hide the scaring later. The sutures are much cleaner and smoother then I had anticipated. Overall, I'm really relieved with how he looks.

The last 18 hours have been the most stressful for me since the surgery. While fully expected, the increased swelling has really affected me much more then I thought. It's less out of concern for his pain, we know that is under control, and more because it's hard to see your child go through all this. The swelled face is a a visual reminder of what he is going through.

I'll be updating the pictures later today, so check them out. Again, they are more intense than previous ones, and include pictures of the swelling and the incision.