Feb 21st

What a full day. We did not have a good start at all as I got a call from Annette that his spasms started again around 5:30am and they were as bad as the day we got here, 14 days ago. They were still going strong around 9am. So I hurried up to the hospital, as I opened the door to walk through the ICU waiting room the whole room was full, completely full of people. They were all here to see Mitch. It was over whelming to see so many people. I quickly went to check on Mitch and he had finally calmed down from the spasms and was sleeping because of all the meds. I quickly told Annette about all the people in the waiting room -- as we walked back to the waiting room to talk with everyone, I opened the door and let a man and his wife through the door, he said "there is no room in there to even turn around, the place is packed with young people, I have no idea what is going on". I said with great happiness and gratitude "they are all here to see my son", he couldn't believe it. Mitch stayed awake just long enough to see everyone - then again had major spasms - but we were able to get them under control earlier than before.

Then the flood gates opened with kids from school - some waiting 3 hours for him to wake up so they could talk with him. Again, he was able to stay awake to see every visitor then he crashed - he was so tired, yet so thankful for all the visitors. I know some of you wanted to come see him but did not because of the message on the blog - sorry about that but it looked as if he was headed back to the breathing tube but pulled out of it at the last minute.

We had so many kids here that security was called in 3 times because the hallways and waiting rooms were packed - at last count 95 kids came to see him today according the lady's at the front desk. The support you all show him and our family is unreal. And more importantly all the behind the scene support, letters, calls, texts, etc. Thank you again, as Mitch told me later tonight in his slurred speech, and something that took him about 3 minutes to say/tell me - "all this support is awesome, it means so much to me"

We are in the final stages of preparation for our trip to the Mayo Clinic. We leave the hospital at 2:00am. This is a much bigger process than I first imagined. Coordinating all the IV's, drugs, dosage size, med times, etc is a very big undertaking - and we sure hope all info is correctly communicated. Annette and I are able to fly on the plane with Mitch.

Our appointment is for 9:00am at St. Mary's Hospital (part of Mayo Clinci). We are very excited to get a new set of eyes looking at Mitch in hopes of finding out what is wrong with him. His spasms are back to the level they were when we first entered 14 days ago and his kidneys are in the early stages of failure, his kidney numbers continue to rise at a very alarming rate. We are hoping and praying for some quick answers/results as he seems to be slipping backwards with each passing day.

Again, thanks to everyone for all the well wishes.