Two steps forward and one step back.

The last of the weekend visitors are leaving on Wednesday.  Jesse on the left and Tiffany on the right are wives of two of the men that were killed at the same time Michael was injured.  Through this horrible tragedy, they have become good, close friends.  It has been nice to associate with someone closer to his own age as well.  It has been a busy few days and will probably be a little boring once everyone is gone but sooner or later, everyone has to get back to the job at hand, including Michael.

We had a little set back today.  He went to his doctor's appointment and got some bad news.  Michael has an eye conformer in his left eye socket to help keep the shape of his eye until the eyelid is healed enough for surgery to repair his bottom eyelid.  The plan was to leave it in at least another month to give the skin as much time as possible to heal. Unfortunately, this conformer is not staying in properly so the doctor removed it and is leaving the eye open.  Because of that, Michael is back to wearing a bandage on the eye to keep it protected. As you can see by this picture, he was not very happy about the situation. Surgery is now scheduled to take place in two weeks instead of the hoped for month.  He especially doesn't like wearing the bandage because it makes it obvious he's been hurt.  He liked the ability to put on his shades and go out incognito as much as possible.  The doctor gave him some mesh netting he could cut to hold the eye patch in place but he chose to use tape even though it's quite obvious.

   

As usual, it wasn't long after the doctor visit that Michael was trying to make the best of things....again.  Here is he putting the netting the doctor gave him on top of his head as a hat.

We've become so accustomed to him doing well that a setback really hits us.  We know how blessed we've been through this whole ordeal and we should be grateful there haven't been more problems but we just don't like it.  We again thank all you wonderful folks out there that are going through this with us.  The support, concern, and kindness are truly appreciated.  Hang in there with us as we know things will be better soon.  And as always, don't forget to say your prayers.