First phone "conversation"

I am still "car challenged" and expect to get the truck back today. Lastnight I called the ICU to check on Sara and her nurse said she appeared sad. I told her that I called also to have her forward the phone into Sara's room so I could talk to her, which she did.

I told Sara about everything going on around here - the car, the cat, work, yadda yadda. I started to notice a little sound coming back from her side of the phone. So, I asked her if she was making sounds intentionally - and she repeated it. Pretty much disbelieving I asked her to set off her ventilator to confirm (she can hold her breath, or exhale longer and it trips the alarm on the vent). She set off the vent and it reset to normal. I was shocked. She was communicating back, over the phone, any way she could. So I quieted down any background noise on my end of the call so I could hear her efforts. When ever I would talk about something that yielded some confirmation or affirmation she'd make a little throat or mouth sound - like a gurgle. It sounds pretty silly to anybody else, but I was thrilled that we could exchange anything. Talking to Sara these days you have to watch her face for expressions, yes and no with her eyes, smiles, frowns, tongue sticking out, etc. This was the first time since mid October I was actually able to have a two way interchange with my daughter over the phone. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

After about 45 minutes on the phone with her I called the nurses station on the other line. I asked the nurse to go into her room and ask her if she wanted to spell anything out to tell me before I hung up...she indicated yes to the nurse. She spelled out "I Love You." Mommy got a big warm fuzzy...still got it... And then she spelled out a message to the nurse that she was uncomfortable and needed some body attention, which she attended to. I told my girl goodnight and told her I would be up there tonight, without fail. So, now I'm going to get on the phone with the Ford dealership and hop on them to make it happen.

She's such an amazing girl...I can't believe it.