Friday,  October 17, 2003

Hi Y'all,

Good news!  Today Eleanore opened her eyes!  She was responsive to simple commands, recognized Daddy, Tom, and myself.  She also got excited when Tom held a picture of his son Matt up in front of her, and she reached out and stroked the picture for several minutes.  From the time we got there at 10 am until we left at 1 pm, she was sitting up in an armchair and she was alternating between periods of what I'd call alert with eyes open and alert with eyes closed with brief periods of light sleep.    She also was moving her head around on her own while she was sitting, and several times she rested her chin in her left hand like you do sometimes.  She also rearranged her whole body and shifted it to another position in the chair at one point.  This afternoon when we visited between 4:30-6 pm she was mostly asleep laying down in her bed. 

They inserted the feeding tube into her stomach, and she was disconnected from all the IVs although they still have the ports in her neck for injection of medicines so they do not have to actually stick her each time they need to give her something.  The stomach feeding tube did not seem to be bothering her at all.  Her face was pretty relaxed and not tense like it was the first few days, when she looked very worried.  Her color is also good and about back to normal.

Take care and thanks so much for all your support and prayers.  I tell her every day that you all are praying for her, and she relaxes when I do.

Love,  Anna, Dad, and Tom