"Smile" by Charlie Chaplin

Smile, though your heart is aching,
Smile, even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky-
You'll get by.
If you smile through your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
For you.
Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near,
That's the time you must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you just smile.

"Smile" is a song, originally used as an instrumental theme in the soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times. Chaplin composed the music(if I could figure out how to put music within the posts I would put this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6ck1ejoAw
lyrics were added in the 1950s and sung by many a crooner.......

side note: I was able to publish two more back posts entitled "welcome to the jungle" and "on the third day he rose again" in the March archives. It chronicles the first day he was born and the third day of his life".........



So we sit here almost 2 weeks after Thurston's downhill spiral and not a whole lot has changed. They have pretty much ruled out an infection of any kind which is the good news. The not so good news is he is still needing a ton of support to breathe and we just don't know what that means. They decided to do a third round of dexamethasone steroids on him, as his settings are so high on the oscillating vent that if we waited too long, well, it just might be too late. He is also getting lasix which is a diuretic to extract fluid from his lungs, so hope that will help as well. They have also started feeding him again, starting off at 5 ml every three hours and today they upped it to 10 so hopefully within a week or so they will be back up to full feeds and they can take his tpn out(total parental nutrition) where he has been getting nutrition through an IV. We also don't know how much he weighs as when kids are sick, they don't weigh them that much as they are just trying to maintain his survival, and even if they did, I just don't bother asking as there are so many other questions I usually have for the nurses and doctors.

The incredible news is that my sweet boy is acting totally and completely normal. He is playing, sticking his tongue out at you, looking at all of the nurses out of the corner of his eyes wondering what they are going to do to him next, and the best part is he is smiling. Yes my sweet boy started to smile, a developmental milestone I would have preferred happen when he didn't have a tube shoved down his throat, but it just melts my heart, tickles my cockles and proves to me over and over again what an incredible, beautiful, lovely child he is, that in the face of extreme adversity, he has found a way to smile through it all. And although I definitely have my sad days at seeing my poor son having to go through all of this over again, and dealing with the uncertainty of our immediate future, he is able to put a smile on my face too.