Aunties Dote

Hi all - Jake's Aunt Jackie "guest blogging" here and filling in some news from Tuesday afternoon / early evening while we (Aunt Terry and I) took a shift at the hospital so Jim, Denise and Nick could go out to dinner together before Nick leaves to head up to Davis / Shasta for a remaining bit of the "terribly inconvenienced" vacation.

The best news is that Jake is in really good spirits - definitely has kept his sense of humor. He had us laughing many times with his usual Hanten dry sense of humor. My favorite Jake-joke can't be relayed in full as it involved a nurse and his w**n*r and this is a G-rated blog and we don't want the search engine indexing that sorta thing cuz then you just never know who will end up following this blog. Instead I'll relay this exchange:

Me: You want some Boost?

Jake: OK

As I hand him the vanilla Boost …….

Jake: Oh, never mind. I thought you said "booze."

In other good news, the two things I was most concerned about going in, turned out to be no worries at all. Worry number one was: What will the urination situation be? I knew the catheter was out but didn't know if we'd have to help. (I mean, I'm just an aunt. I'm only good for so much....) Anyway, this was no problem. We just had to help unhook him from all his accoutrement and help him sit up by the side of the bed and then Jake instructed us to go stand outside the curtain and talk amongst ourselves, with a stern, "No peeking" order. (I shant reveal whether we peeked or not.)

My number two worry was: Will we have to see his butt if the PT comes in and makes him walk around? Figured he'd be wearing the standard gown w/ the useless tie-ups in the back. (I'm sure it's a fine butt, and his parents are very proud and the gals at school might dig it, but again, I'm just an aunt.) Anyway, I'm happy to report that the PT did in fact come in, and Jake did in fact get up and walk around his room with the walker and nary a cheek was visible, thanks to hospital-issue green shorts.

A word about his room. The word is: bummer, man. (OK - that's two words.) They have him in the center bed of a 3-bed room. There is very little space on either side of his bed and just moving around and getting 2 people seated is a complicated exercise of rearranging furniture and trays and 87 pillows. The Hantens are all holding up quite well considering they've spent several days in this confined, noisy space.

In other good news, Jake ate vanilla ice cream for the first time yesterday (mixed with a bit of Boost). It took about 30 min, but it went down well. Any day you can eat ice cream is a good day in my book, and Grandpa Hanten would have agreed. We delivered a stuffed bear from Grandma. I don't know what this bear is filled with, but he's VERY heavy. We told Jake he could use it for arm curls while he's stuck in bed. He did a curl or two, then set it down and said, "I think I need the intermediate bear."

We also presented a gift-to-come from all his aunties: the new Ghostbuster video game (http://www.ghostbustersgame.com/us/index.html). It was presented with photos of Terry and me in our old Ghostbusters Halloween costumes. We asked if we should go all out and get the super deluxe "Slimer Edition" and he suggested we "shouldn't skimp on Ghostbusters." He added that now he wouldn't have to be depressed about being stuck in his house for 6 weeks.

Jake has now added an eye patch to his look. (We’ll let his parents explain the technicalities.) Two potential blogger comment discussions: (1) Which will be his biggest babe magnet – missing tooth, scar or patch? (2) Should he shave or keep the "beard" he’s got going?

That's pretty much it. I just have to add a word about how strong all those Hantens are. Jim and Denise actually look pretty good considering all the coming and going and worrying and not-sleeping they've been doing. Nick has been a huge help, and Jake is so very strong. He's really keeping a good attitude and seems to be holding up really well.

We love you guys. Nurse Jackie and Nurse Terry signing off until the next shift.