Three Hours and a Million Thanks

Its been three hours since Ginny was switched to the traditional ventilator, and so far, so good.

There are already easily thousands of people that we need to thank for their support. I'll never be able to name you all, but here are two: Jen & Steve McElroy.

I was all set to go give blood yesterday morning as a direct donation to Ginny. She'll need a few units of blood when they do her surgery to correct the TGA. I got the paperwork done Monday, but I couldn't give until Tuesday. Ginny is type A +, and so am I. And, I'm negative for Cytomegalovirus (CMV). You might be CMV positive and never know it. Its not a big deal, except you can't give CMV positive blood or blood products to infants or other immuno-depressed patients. When I got to the blood bank, I discovered that I wouldn't be allowed to donate for a year. Because our trip to Vietnam in January included trips out of Saigon and into the countryside, the risk of malaria was too great.

Jen and Steve were both compatible blood types and CMV negative. They volunteered and had given blood before the sun went down. In addition to the prayers and meals, if you'd really like to help, you could give blood. If you're CMV negative, maybe Ginny can't use you blood but some other sick baby can. There are a lot of sick babies here and Ginny wants to hang out with them as soon as possible.

I'd also like to thank whoever it was that came over and mowed my lawn on Saturday. I think I know who it was, but he won't admit it.