time is something that i don’t have a lot of, so i’d like to thank everyone who has commented and sent an email. i won’t be able to respond, but please know that it really, really means a great deal. kris didn’t progress much today and spent much of the day sliding in the wrong direction. she’s out of life threatening danger, but everyone is hoping that things start to look better tommorrow. of course, she’s not able to see eric, which is the hardest part for her to bear.

eric took an expected turn for the worse in the morning, but gained some ground over the remainder of the day. his liver is not working as well as it should so he’s susceptible to jaundice. he was a little “jaundice yellow” this morning, but got more pinkish over time.

more significantly, eric has a “normal” condition known as patent ductus arteriosus (pda) , which is essentially a hole in the heart that needs to be closed. over the next few days, the doctors are trying to close the hole with medicines, but if it fails then he will need to get heart surgery. if they don’t close the hole quickly, he has a much higher risk of brain hemmoraging, so we’re obviously waiting anxiously to see if the medicine works.

since kris can’t see eric yet, i’m taking pictures everyday and tranferring them to her ibook, so she can constantly see how he’s doing and what he looks like. i’ve uploaded some of them to my flickr account so that friends and family [ and any others ] can stay abreast of his development. i hope to revamp parallax to keep a daily running journal of eric’s development. i assume that this will mostly be of interest to close family and friends who are scattered around the world, but even if you don’t know us, feel free to cheer along. every little bit of support helps.

kris enjoys flowers so please send them to:

kris salmi-snowdeal
c/o. st. mary’s hospital
200 jefferson ave s.e.
rm #923
grand rapids, mi 49503

we’ve recieved flowers from “eastern floral and gift shop” ( 616.949.22000 ) so i know that they know how to get flowers to the hospital, but i’m sure other florists in the area can get a bouquet to her. even if you don’t “know” kris, i’d be mighty obliged if you sent her flowers. she could really use the uplift. i can’t stress this enough. if you have the slightest inclincation as to what kris is going through, please, please send her flowers. she can use any little but of support she can get. thanks.