Day 22 | OCTOBER 02, 2021

Good Evening Friends, Day 22 of our new life!

Today was a good day overall. After a fun breakfast with the boys and Vovo, I made my way to the hospital, arriving there by 11:50 am.

Charlie was taking a nap when I arrived , so I took the time with her second Surgeon and asked about his perspective, he once again reassured me on how good Charlie is doing, and told me this next two weeks are very important on her treatment, that is when she will start the application of Epicel and once that is done ( it will take more than 2 weeks, maybe 45 days or so) , but that first application will be the start of her next phase , she would move from the acute phase into the healing stage, this is just absolutely incredible to think about, off course the risk of infection remains high, but it is he first big step towards bringing Charlie home.

I don’t want to sound too optimistic but I now can clearly see the first step of her recovery path being laid as soon as this coming Friday! It is incredible how much progress Charlie has made in the first 22 days!

Charlie woke up 30 minutes after my arrival, and she was so excited to see me , we began talking about how she was feeling, she said she was ok, and she asked her nurse to reduce her pain medication and any sedatives she was on, she said that she wanted to be clear headed since we would be reading cards shortly, so the did reduce her sedation, but not the ones pain med since she was on a very low seating already.

We had such a good time opening each card and I read her each card. Today we opened and hung 53 cards on the wall . Please keep it coming!! The goal is to cover her entire room and spill into the hallway!!

Charlie kept saying, I just can’t believe that strangers are sending me well wishes and beautiful cards! She is so humbled and surprised by it ! It took us about 1:30h to read the cards and hanging it on the wall, I am attaching a picture below for you to see how cool her room will be with your cards

We also talked for about 2 hours, we mainly talked about the incredible love and support we are receiving from all of you and Charlie’s mom friends here in Charlottesville, she and I are beyond humbled by it. Thank you so much for your love and generosity. Today I read to Charlie some of your amazing comments and she is genuinely surprised by the dimension her story is taking.

She was alert for more than 4:30h and that was great!

Towards the end of our visit, Charlie asked me to get close to her and she said looking deep into my eyes, I love you more now than I ever did! And I will always love you!

I smiled and said, I also love you now more than ever before, and our love together with our faith in God, has become a spiritual experience.

We both smiled and for the first time since the accident I kissed her on her lips. It was the most magical moment I have experienced in a very long time ! Thank you God for this second chance with my beautiful wife and family.

The only not so good news is that Charlie’s pneumonia is back, and they have restarted the antibiotics, please pray for this pneumonia to go away!

I remain grateful and with a full heart of hope. This group has helped me during the early days of fear and uncertainty and I am forever grateful!

In regards to the kids' visit, yes we can video call, and tomorrow we are doing so. Charlie is very excited for it!

We need 1k Cards!! And we need more Prayer warriors in this group!!

Thank you! And May God Bless You !

André