Marshall will not likely be stepping down from the ICU today.

Yesterday he woke quite happy and as the day continued, his mood declined.

By the afternoon he was plain grumpy.

By last night he was nearing the inconsolable state which landed us in Upstate.

Last night’s nurse’s instincts were as fierce as mine in terms of us both knowing something was just not right. Especially just the night previous she experienced Marshall in all of his marvelous Marshall-ness.

Last night he wasn’t our happy little miracle.

So they adjusted his meds. And he slept well last night (from what Grandma Penny reported. She took over night duty so that I could get some desperately needed sleep.)

He was his smiley self when he awoke this morning. And then got grumpy. Neurology stopped and said that often meds they give to treat the seizures which follow the strokes make kids grouchy for a few weeks.

Luckily, I have a grumpy grouch soother: slow dancing.

So three songs in, Marshall zonked out while we were listening to Johnny Cash.

And he again awoke all smiles.

In terms of plans, the only one we have at this point is to get him better.

The doctors believe that he will bounce back from the strokes in the same fashion he bounced back from his first surgery: hard and high. They also expect his brain will reassign storage space to compensate for where the strokes were.

Then when he is well enough to receive a heart and after some blood tests, he can likely be active on the transplant list.

And then we wait…still.