28 days down... 27 days left...

... to what???
Really, we don't have a clue.
Still, Mauri and I decided to do a countdown of 30 days from the date of his last big operation (last Monday). To us, it seemed like a good measure of how long it might take for those last grafted areas to heal.
Noone has really given any real feedback as to how much longer Mauri will be in the hospital. In fact, one of his doctors last time told me that she'd be able to tell me how long it will be until he gets the "alta," if I could tell her the winning numbers to the primitiva lottery.
Not completely amused by the response, nor confident in my ability to guess winning lottery tickets (alas, I am one who is more "afortunada en el amor" than "en el juego"), I resorted to following through with our silly little countdown.
Actually, giving it some more thought, out 30 day countdown is actually pretty logical. When Mauri arrived at the ICU, 4 weeks ago today, we were told that he would probably be there for about a month (almost there?!?!?). We were also told that it would take 2-3 months for him to be given the "alta."
His healing has been better than expected (they admit that his back and face have healed exceptionally well and that they never expected such a big part of his back, with as badly as it was burnt, to have epithelialized on its own). So, I would guess that our 30 day countdown should more than cover it.
Am I being overly optimistic???
Mauri would say yes.
Obviously he'll have more healing to do, but I'm hoping that most of it can take place at home, making occasional trips to the hospital for "curas."
Either way, I know that because of the heat in the ICU that Mauri is pushing to leave the carcel ASAP, despite his normally sleeping better on the special bed. He will also push to leave the hospital ASAP because he wants to arrive at home. Since I have made it clear that I can dedicate all of my time to helping him heal, it may bee sooner than either of us imagines.
Mauri doesn't feel as optimistic as I do, but I get the feeling that he will be leaving the ICU in the next couple of days. The doctors give me that "vibe."
I can only hope I'm right.
Tomorrow, we'll have a better idea.

Anyways, yesterday's visits were much less eventful than Tuesday's. (luckily)
Yes, I know, I was a bit overly dramatic in my story telling about Tuesday (at least for the IV bleeding part), but really the day was dramatic enough for that type of melodrama.
In all actuality, the story about the guy who escaped was told just as it happened. Mauri was scared for our (and his own, I'm sure) safety.

Today's visits were also pretty uneventful, except for the fact that this evening I finally had the privilege to go into the ICU. They told me that it was because noone else was in there, and because Mauri was still in the bed. So, I went to see him.
He decided, though, that he wanted to get out of the bed because he couldn't take the heat anymore. They decided to move him nearby to see if separating him from the heat of the bed would make any difference in how he felt.
I got to experience first hand the heat of the ICU. It was worse than what I had imagined- definitely not somewhere that a burn patient, or any sick person, should be.
We moved Mauri's tv- this was a must- because later on Spain would be playing in the semifinals of the European cup (a historical event). I spent awhile playing with the antenna, which we taped to the walls with surgical tape, enough to get some sound to go with the fuzzy, black and white reception of the game.
It's funny that with what has been happening with Mauri, I'm oblivious to everything that's happening around me. I have no idea what day it is ever, nor do I know what is happening in the news. That's true, of course, of everything except soccer.
It is impossible to be in Spain and be oblivious to the fact that Spain is now in the finals. I didn't watch the game. I was on the bus home. Still, I knew what had happened.
I arrived to a Denia that was filled with fireworks, people driving around the streets, honking their horns, waving the Spanish flag out the window. Others were running around in Spanish soccer jerseys waving the flag and jumping and yelling.
Seeing how happy everyone was, you'd have thought that Spain had won the world cup.
One step closer to winning the European one.

26 days to go...