OK, considering what it has meant at various times here, perhaps the word "crash" was too strong a word for what Will experienced today. I meant it to be a commentary on what Dr. Dagle had said -- he predicted no further fall-off after the operation (specifically using the word "crash"), and Will responded by having a fall-off in one of his important stats. But by the time we came in tonight, they had turned the jackhammer aspect of the ventilator down a couple of notches, and he seems steady and content in all other areas. As I have said before, however, we know they do what he needs at any given time to get back to even, but sometimes those things are painful to watch. He didn't seem to mind it much, but it's still hard to watch him shake like that. Imagine being on one of those vibrating back massagers that's as big as your body and having it on high from the time you get up until, well, next Tuesday, and that gives you some idea what this is like. Might sound soothing at first, but believe me, you'd get tired of it. On the spectrum of things that would bother you, of course, that would be a couple spots below invasive heart surgery at 37 days of life, so I guess it's all relative for a tough guy like Will.

I'm heading back in to see him again (this is a special mid-visit post because I was worried that people might get the wrong idea about his condition from my last post). Right now, Mary is reading some Dr. Seuss to him for a bedtime story. It's never too early to start.