Mar 10, 2006

Thursday Update

Praise the Lord! Things are getting better, in God's time.

This update will be in a few parts today so that it won’t be one extremely long update. Plus now that I’m back at work, I have to work a little you know. : )

Wednesday night was better for Roger. Cassie and I had to leave him about midnight in order for us to not exhaust ourselves. Although it was hard, we knew we had to do it. He slept for about two hours then woke up due to the muscle spasms. He was able to go back to sleep for many hours after requesting more medication. His night nurse Penny is so nice. When Amanda arrived at 6:00 a.m., he was breathing hard in deep sleep.

This made his day a lot better on Thursday. Days are the most exciting for Roger. His schedule is so busy that he missed lunch yesterday. He was going from one thing to another when his lunch arrived and when he returned it was gone. Cassie made sure he ate, but we’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen again. He is eating so much better. He gets to choose what he eats every meal. And he has had something different each time. There is a lot of variety. Although the food is a little bland, it smells delicious and it must be good because he eats most of it. He’s not a fan of the succotash or the potatoes. He’s had apple pie, yellow cake with strawberry filling, ice cream and lots of jello for dessert. So his appetite is returning. His neck is getting stronger so he’s not getting lightheaded anymore and he has been eating his meals in a chair out of the bed.

He has occupational and physical therapy everyday. The OT spoke with him about speech therapy yesterday. Roger can still read, but putting everything together and comprehending takes a lot of concentration. Reading exhausts him. He was not able to read his emails yesterday. He and Cassie are going to try to tackle that daunting task today, if they have time. He has a crazy amount of emails. The OT and PT have been working him hard. Cassie said it exhausts her just watching. The OT pushed him far yesterday and he let her. She is making him do almost everything himself now. She is helping him be able to function now and helping him to regain movement. So he’s getting better with moving his right side around to help him get around all together. His leg is improving faster than his arm. But we started working on his leg before OT and PT came because we could. His arm had so many IV's in ICU we never touched it. He had a spinal MRI Thursday during the day to just make sure the spasms are not caused by anything else. His neurosurgeon Dr. Rosenbaum visits him about twice a day, so he’ll give Roger those results soon.

He gets a shower everyday. Cassie, a female corpsman and I gave him a scrub down all together in a huge shower room Wednesday. He was making comments about being naked with three women in a shower. Of course, he was the only person naked and we were all getting wet. He still hasn’t had a bowel movement yet on his own. He’s going to kill me for including that. The medication he is on causes constipation plus with the loss of movement of the right side, he hasn’t regained control of the right side of that either. They are going to address that soon too. So I administered an enema on Wednesday and Cassie got to administer one yesterday. We must really love him. : )

He got in a wheel chair last night and we made a few rounds around the fifth floor wards. It was good for him to get out and see what's going on around him. Especially to see all the war heros from Iraq. We were out in the hall on Wednesday when they were presenting a Marine a few rooms down the hall with a purple heart. Today he might be able to go to other floors. Dr. Rosenbaum has to approve it and then they have to find the time to actually leave and go exploring. He spoke with a therapist yesterday. It’s good for him to get out all his fears and frustrations. Basically, his expectations were very high and they were shot down. He knows he is going to get better, but it’s taking longer than he wants. So please continue to pray for him in that area. They also spoke about his muscle spasms and the control of them. When he gets anxious they start up and he has to learn how to control them. Just like the rest of us who get sweaty hands or butterflies when we are nervous or anxious, his right legs begins to shake and if he allows it, it will become uncontrollable.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll email more at lunch. Thank you all so much for your prayers. We have an awesome God and he’s working for our good in our lives. He answers prayer because we see it everyday. Please also pray for Cassie. She’s a huge blessing. God knew she was the perfect person for the job and he wanted her here. He gave her a huge desire to be here and help. That’s how you know God’s will. She listened and obeyed. Thank you Jesus!

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