A Difficult Day of Healing

Tom Kerr, Jr. (7:06 pm EST, Wednesday, 1/5/22)

My phone rang this morning at about 10am EST, with Whitney's face on the screen. That's pretty early for Las Vegas. When I answered, she said hello and said that Kyle wanted to talk with me. It's the first time I have heard him speak since the fire. I could not recognize anything about his voice. The tone, timbre, cadence, inflections; everything about his voice was different. It was a high-pitched squeak, and he had to pause to form the words, and strain to say them loud enough. It's obvious that his vocal cords need healing, too. I was able to understand him, but there was nothing about that voice that sounded like Kyle to me. Even though his voice was strained and difficult, we were able to talk for a few seconds. He assured me that he was good and that things are moving in the right direction. Whitney reported that Kyle is able now to get up from his bed on occasion and make his way to a chair in the room. A pretty fine start for this Wednesday.

But by the end of the day, Whitney reported that it had changed from a fine start into a rough day.
"I’m exhausted…it was a long hard day," she said. "Pepper is in surgery, finally. The poor thing had to fast for the surgery. She was supposed to go in at 7am but she was just rolled back at 3pm to begin. She was not happy and said that she felt like she was hollow from being so hungry."

Whitney shared with me an interesting fact about Pepper. She is given 3000 calories per day through her feeding tube. Think about that. A pre-teen girl, lying in bed and her body is working so hard that she is burning through 3000 calories per day. It amazes me! Now, think about how hungry she must have been as her body continued burning fuel at that rate and wasn't fed for over 8 hours! I'm thinking she might have been a bit hangry!

Krew is off the ventilator now. That is good. However, he is currently going through major withdrawals and panic as the sedation is reduced and the pain and discomfort come crawling in. He keeps calling out for his mommy. The hospital allowed Whitney to hold him. At one point, she held him for one and a half hours, and she said it was a continuous wrestling match trying to keep his little body from shaking and moving. But there is no drug on the planet more calming, healing and effective than a mother's arms.

Yesterday was an amazingly wonderful day with fantastic milestones. But not every day can be wonderful.