My sister found me the links to the news stories that were done on Andy.
Thanks for that!
Aug. 31st August 31, 2007
My friend tonya took the boys today. I tried to bypass the traffic but there is traffic everywhere. 
I got to the hospital around 9:30 and used valet. I called earlier and asked how it worked, fees and tips-it is totally free and tipless. WHY HAVE I BEEN PARKING MY OWN CAR? It was SO nice today. I just drove up and walked in. Love love love valet.
I had been told he had surgery at 9am, but Annie said it was on the schedule for 9:45 and they didn’t get the call to take him down till 10:00-so I was able to spend some time with him. He was really out of it and hallucinating again. I really hope that we just have a few more days till he can escape this fog. He got close once but we have had so many surgeries so close together his body hasn’t been able to really recover. This is the last one for awhile though. Yay! Tomorrow ‘they’ should be able to do the swallow study and he should be able to drink. He will love that. He is so thirsty. Then, hopefully just a few more days and he will get to eat and get the feeding tube taken out. That will be awesome.
Dr. Butterfield came and talked to us at 1:30. Andy did fine. He wasn’t able to get that bone aligned all the way and mentioned how frustating that was-that he is pretty strong and using levers etc. He was only able to get it within 1 cm next to and 1 cm in front of where it should be. He put in bone growth powder(crush up the bones of 200 healthy people and take out the good bone growth hormone and that’s what andy got today-at a cost of 5000.00 a shot!) the bone should grow together just fine. He said that is why Dr. Bauman wanted to do the spine surgery first to make sure they had room to get the spine in place, so it’s probably a good thing they did. That is a joint that will now be fused, but it only has about a milineter of movement so he won’t even notice that one.
When I went back he was in a lot of pain. Almost crying. It was surprising me that he wasn’t crying actually. We got pain killer in him, and Annie called and got an order for some extra. We got the tv turned on and he was able to calm down. He struggled today, He slept about half the time, but just can’t get comfortable. He does get more movement now, so I think that is helping, but he just has so much of his body that hurts it’s next to impossible to get him comfortable.
I left at 5:30 to go get my kids. It takes so long to get across the valley. pooey. His mom was on her way up so he wouldn’t be alone tonight. I want him to be ok and to not be stressing out, so this is good. She just called me(8pm) and said that Andy wanted to talk to me. I asked how he was doing and he said fine, but he didn’t know his pain number. He asked if I missed him. Of course I do! but I explained that I have to be with the kids(though I’m useless tonight, all anyone is doing here is yelling and whining) and his mom is there to take care of him. Stryker had just pulled a pokey out of his foot and was bleeding a bit and was freaking out a lot, so I had to go, but I told him I loved him and I’d see him tomorrow. He seemed ok with that.
aug. 30th-thursday August 30, 2007
I got the kids up and off to joni’s this morning. I got gas and got to the hospital at 9am, but couldn’t find a parking spot till 9:30 and even then it was just a 2 hour limit(parallel parked even-have I said before how I didn’t pass parallel parking in driver’s ed? Never could-even in a little 4 door sedan, but I did it today with my van. Just another tender mercy.) But I was parked in 2 hour parking and when katei left I went and took her spot-i had a ticket. (Ihad been there for over 6 hours…) but its only a 10.00 fine. Sweet. I’m almost excited to know that its so cheap. I bet that’s even cheaper than the hospital valet! To only have to pay 10.00 for
great spot right in front of the hospital for all day-I’ll take it!
During all that driving I called and rescheduled 2 appts for the boys I had today to a couple weeks out. I’m sure I still won’t want to waste my time doing them then, but hopefully andy will be in a better place so I don’t feel like I need to ALWAYS be here.
Andy always is ticked at me when I come in-not because I came, but because I left. Nights are really hard for him and I wish I could be here. Yesterday he was able to get some anti-anxiety medicine prn(adavan-when he asks for it) and this afternoon he was starting to freak out so we gave that to him and it works wonders for him. He is able to relax and sleep. He will sleep without it but its usually not for very long and he wakes up confused, not really knowing what’s going on. So its been really good for him to get some real asleep(though he still wakes up confused). Anyway, my whole point was that nights are really hard for him-so I just asked the nurse and she is going to put in an order for them to just give it to him every 6 hours at night-since its prn and he isn’t aware enough to be able to ask for it. That will help so much I think.
They said he freaked out at some point last night-He pulled out one of his arc lines(really naughty) and got tied down. I’m hopeful for him tonight.
He has been higher than a kite today-but he said once that his pain number was a 2, so that’s really good. Its been so funny-he has said the finniest things. I’m so writing stuff down so I can make fun of him later. One day when I have more time I’ll post all the funny stuff he says. He’s hilarious. 
He begged for juice alllllll day. Lemonade to be specific. Every single person that came in the room from the orthopedic surgeon to the cleaning lady, he asked for juice today. Most of the morning the answer was no, that he had to wait till ‘they’ came in for a swallow study(not sure exactly who they are…) but then when the nurse found out he has surgery again tomorrow the answer became no flat out. He will be intabated again so we start over on the quest for jiuce. The good news in this story is that I (we) were able to get the nurse to let him have juice swabs instead of water swabs. He was pretty happy, but was in a lot of pain and starting to
freak out so that’s when we gave him the adavan and he went to sleep. Couple more days dude and you will be on the road to real food.
He has surgery to finish the sacrum tomorrow at 9am. Dr. Butterfield will be doing it and he said it won’t take long at all-he estimates that with prep time and closing him up I will be just 2 hours. Then we will work towards sitting up. He told me that can be a process since he had so much breakage and surgery and so much time laying flat. We will start with 15 minutes twice a day and work up from there. He also said something about probably going to a rehab center after this and not straight home. ick. I just want him home and happy and healthy.
Dr. Butterfield also said that in about 6 months they will go back in and take all(all? Really?) of the hardware out of his back-the bones will have time to fully heal and it can be painful and annoying to leave it in. There isn’t muscle or much fat in you lower back and have metal there can be irratating. I don’t think he actually means all of it though-when I was talking to Dr. Bauman the ‘bridge’ they created on the verterbrae that broke sunded pretty permanant. I’ll be sure to ask next time I see either of them. Either way its pretty cool that it comes out.
Andy gets more liberty with how he sits-like angle and movement. Its been pretty nice, and it seem like a but easier to get comfortable.
Aprill and Katie came up for awhile today-I’m learning to use the people that come in to visit for help. I really want to do it all myself, but at the end of the day its more exhausting than you’d think to have stood and given him swabs of water all day.
I left just after 5pm. He was in a really good place with that adavan. I asked annie again about giving him that through the night and she said she’d be sure to pass that on to the night nurse-and said that she was sure they would be happy about that. Lol-at least I can feel comfortable that they will be giving it to him right?
Andy has found his phone. He called me twice tonight after I left. It’s horrible. I hate leaving him alone anyway. He called and told me he thought he was in the jungle. Asked me where I was-told me the nurses weren’t responding to him. I asked if he had pushed his button(he doesn’t always remember where it is or to push it when he needs help) and he said he had but they weren’t coming. I told him to push it again(sometimes even when he pushes it he doesn’t hit it hard enough to make it work) and he said he did. It’s just hard. So I told him to hang up and I’d call his nurse to see what’s going on and ask for more pain medicine. She told me he had one more hour till he could get more adavan and she would, or just did give him pain medicine. She said that he doesn’t like being alone and gets nervous. He had hit his button, but Annie was doing report and a CNA went in. Andy didn’t like that since he didn’t know her and wouldn’t let her do anything. Ahhhhh! so hard for me! I called my mom-If I need I can just drop everything and run to the hospital, but not all the time, the kids are really struggling the last couple days. She suggested I call Joni. What a great idea! I’m sure I would have come up with it, but just called my mommy first. She and Gordon went up right away. I’m so grateful they could go. He called me again a bit later, before they got there, stressing out again. He told me he needs me to come, and I told him I couldn’t, that the kids need me, but his mom’s on her way and he was ok with that. He told me to call his nurse again(Have I become the nurse button?!?). I called his mama and they were parking and almost there.
She called me after she got him all arranged and they were bathing him-so she left the room and called me. They are going to stay till midnight, or later if he needs them still. We talked a bit about what’s going on and they are going to take the night shift at least for a few days-till he is more ok on his own. I feel so bad for him, but I just can’t be there 24/7 so I’m glad that we can switch shifts and someone can be there with him more. I can’t imagine how he feels waking up confused and in pain. What a horrible feeling.
Some pictures from today:
This is a picture of the other arc line he didn’t pull out. This thing is taped to his arm and one side connects to a machine(I think it checks his blood/oxygen level) and one side is in a vein in his wrist.
Ewww-hairy knees with staples. NASTY!
Check out the angle of his bed! Nice! He can have up to 45 degress today, and have his legs up a bit.
Brushing his own teeth-they had lip skin stuck to his teeth. His mouth gets so dry. His tongue is cracked at the end. Poor boy! oh, and his hand in unwrapped now, you can see what has been under all that guaze.
.
Juice cup with swab. Yay!
I’ve had a request for some happy pictures of my boys-so here are a couple:
Aug. 29th August 29, 2007
I can’t beleive how well I’m doing running on no sleep. I amaze myself.
It took a long time to regulate pain today. He was dying mostly all night and all morning. He was in a really bad place and I couldn’t do anything for him. It was horrible. He just kept telling me ‘you don’t understand-it hurts immensly, immense pain” etc. Really hard to not be able to help. We just did a roller coaster since every time he would get comfortable the pain would start back again.
Finally around 1pm we got to give him the same medicine he was getting 2 days ago, before the surgery. (roxycodone, and oxycotin) and he got to keep the ‘pain button’. That helped his pain level to a point that he should have been ok, but he was fighting it hard. He wasn’t letting himself fall asleep and relax. I could get him to relax enough to sleep for about 10 minutes, but then he’d be awake and wanting rearranged again. I’m all about making him comfortable, but he needs to let the medicine to it’s job and try to not focus on the pain so much. Around 3pm they were able to give him an anti-anxiety drug. I’m not sure if the extra medicine put him to sleep, or he was finally able to relax enough, but he was out of it for a couple hours, so I finally felt comfortable leaving. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do tonight-I knew I wasn’t going to be able to leave him like he was this morning, so I’m really thankful we were able to get that worked out. His mom and Dad were staying later and going to make sure he was still comfortable after shift change then go home.
My kids were so happy to see me and play. They have missed me a lot, so we had some fun tonight since I left the hospital earlier than I usually do. I miss them a lot. They are so fun.
I am still daily amazed at how thoughtful and generous people are being. I’m keeping track and I will be sending out thank you cards. You all mean so much to us. Even the fact that so many are reading this blog-it’s been important to me to know that people really do care about us. Thanks.
No pictures today, I was tired, he was out of it, and nothing new happened.
oh wow August 29, 2007
This is the end of the aug. 28th update. He had surgery all day. The night is a blur for me-the dr.s came out around 9:00 I think and told us how it went. It went well, they fixed what they wanted to fix, and in a week they will go in again to finish up. (one body can only take so much in a day) I think I’m supposed to to happy about that, but I’m not. They had to fuse a few vertebra together and they say that won’t restrict movement very much, but it will some. The heel did get squished and we just have to wait and see on that.
We went home after that, he had just gotten out of surgery and was out of it. I bawled my whole way home and forever at home. I took a shower/bath and went to bed. I got a call at 11:30pm and checked the message-it was the hospital, I guess Andy was waking up from anesthia (no way i’m spelling that right. bah) and he was in a lot of pain and wanting me. I was able to talk to him on the phone and first thing he said was ‘help me’ and he told me the nurses weren’t helping him(i’m sure they were trying) and that he needed me. So jump out of bed and book it to the hospital. Aprill came with me. I’ve been up basically all night. He is on a ‘button’ for pain meds. It’s a strong medicine, but not a long lasting one, so he has to keep hiting the button. but it makes him out of it, and sometimes he will get to the point where he will sleep for about a half hour, but then he crashes since he hasnt’ been hitting the button. Its been a roller coaster all night. I’m begging them to just put him on a drip or something in his central line. They have said they are working on it, everything just takes time, but this is hard.
Still waiting waiting waiting August 28, 2007
Nothing happening yet, but a friend posted this on another website, so I thought I’d share the information. Love you guys!
I just called US BANK and here is what you need to know-
You can send a check in the mail made out to:
Gudmundson Donation Fund
Send the check to:
US Bank
3580 S 2700 W
Salt Lake City UT 84119
Enclose a note asking them to deposit it in the Donation Fund account for Andy Gudmundson.
Aug. 28th August 28, 2007
Surgery Day. I’ve been dreading this for the last week. He went into surgery this morning at 7:30am. I got to the hospital around 8:00am. All I had heard was 2 hours, but I knew it would be longer than that-that was only for one of the things they were doing today. We called the medsurg icu at 10:30(3 hours later) to see if he was back of not and they said they were told not to expect him till after 5pm. WHAT THE? 5 pm?!? So we were able to get the number for the OR and we have gotten updates a couple times. Last update was 5pm and they said another 2 and a half hours. Dang-a 12 hour surgery! It’s crazy. I left before Stryker woke up this morning and I’ll be I get home after he goes to sleep tonight. “Stryker had a hard day….” “Mommy had a hard day…”
I’ll update later. Hopefully I don’t get home too late.
Aug. 27th (Day 7) August 27, 2007
Andys pain level is more under control today. He was a lot more alert today. We talked quite a bit and it wasn’t wearing him out like it has been other days. The medicine still knocks him out for an hour or two after he gets it, but then it’s more normal.
He got a sno cone today. I brought up lemon-lime and a blue raspberry. He ate very little-He was liking them, but it’s a lot of sugar, and he hasn’t even had food for awhile so he wasn’t eating very much. He still can’t eat/drink and is dying. He isn’t missing the food at all, but he really is missing the drink. He is constantly thirsty and can’t have actual drinks. So sad. I went down to lunch and when I came back he asked me what I ate (bacon cheeseburger and fries) and he made a ‘yucky’ face then he asked me what I had to drink (fresca) and he was dying and suddenly craving fresca. (so ya’ll know what to bring for him when he finally gets cleared to drink. lol)
He has less feeling in his toes than he has had on previous days. He can pull his right foot up some but very little pusing down. That worries me, but I’m defineltly trying to mentally hold out for a month or two and see where he’s at then.
His sacrum injury is very rare-the largest study is 4 cases. (then the dr. explained that means that the dr. who’s done the most of this surgery has only done 4 in his whole carreer. Wow. That’s crazy, He didn’t say but I’m assuming that means that he’s never done one. He told me he had been researching it. Last I heard, the surgery on his sacrum will be 2-part-fusing the outside broken part to the pelvic bone then the middle part in a week or so.
The heel-really hard. Dr. Butterfield said a conservative guess is that there are 50 pieces in there-he is going to squish it together to hopefully the width if a heel and let it heal and see from there. (He told me that they ‘used to’ fix a shatter like this by putting a board on one side of the foot and using a rubber mallet on the other side to squish it together. I couldn’t gather the guts to ask how they do it now, but he didn’t make it sound like surgery is involved…..) Running and jumping sounds more negative from a heel stand point than a spine standpoint lately.
So we have surgery tomorrow at 7:30am. They are going in through the front to connect that peice of sacrum to the pelvic bone, then if he’s doing alright they will flip him over and open up his back and do the spine surgery. I think it’s crazy that next time I see him he will have 2 MORE slits in him. They really are trying to torture him I think. I’m praying so hard for the drs to be guided and inspired. I’m really really nervous-so much of his future depends on tomorrow morning and I can’t bear to think that they haven’t even done a surgery like this. Please pray for Andy, for the Dr.s and for me-We are all going to need it tomorrow.
Tomorrow after surgery he should be moved again-they must now have room in the medsurg icu, so he is going to be there. That means we are on the 6th floor again just on the opposite side. I’m a little more comfortable with that, I know that all the nurses are great and know what they are doing, but I can imagine that if they’ve worked in the cardiac icu for a long time they might not be as familiar with trauma injuries like the other icu’s might be.
Smiling again. What a ham.
He got this leg brace today. He was starting to get ‘foot drop’. Laying in bed your foot is always at that downward angle and the achilles tendon can tighten and pull it down down down, so he gets to wear that to keep the foot up. You don’t want to have to do physical therapy to stretch that tendon when this is all over.
I think I always take the pictures from the other side and I’m not sure there has been a picture of his central line in his neck.
Full body shot from this morning, obviously before he got his boot on. He is playing with his ipod. (that only lasts a few mintues-it must be too much stimulation still probably)
His poo bag. It’s back, and yucky. (ah, and not rotated…)
And the star picture of the day-I got a picture while they were changing the dressing on his chest tube hole. NASTY!
Aug. 26-Day 6 August 26, 2007
Andy is off the fentanyl-his super painkiller, but also what was making him so sleepy and loopy and hallucingating. I didn’t really expound on that yesterday-he would tell me he was seeing things as he was seeing them. It was really funny. He was seeing little cars zip around on the ceiling. He told me about dreaming he was walking to leather couches. He saw orange juice on his right and later Charlie floating above him on his left. He said he sees different colored rooms-I think meaning hte room was changing colors. He was hilarious.
He is really alert and talking this morning. He has had a couple dr.s come in to check his tummy and I guess it’s rpetty ticklish, so he was telling them they could touch it as long as they don’t tickle it. He is really thirsty but he can’t have anything yet except ice chips. He is liking the ice chips, but is begging for a sno cone. Literally beggin for a sno cone. He has asked every single person that comes in if he can be cleared for that. He finally got someone to clear him for that so he told me 3 different flavors that he wants. lol
His main pain this morning is in his right hip-he says it’s his sciatic nerve, and maybe it is, but there is quite a bit of damage down there so it could just be all the nerves. He has a rectal tube again-it’s probably much easier than changing the pads under him.
He got a spirometer today(the thing you blow into to work you lungs and loosen up phlegm) amd was able to get up to 1500. They gave him the goal of 1100 and he pushed it up to 1500, but when he got to 1250 he pushed it up even farther. Way to be tough Andy. He really is trying hard. I can give him ice chips as long as he tries to cough after. He has made some good progress on that.
He can feel the tops of his feet but not the bottoms he says-and when they touch his feet he is not feeling when they touch his right one. He can still wiggle his toes. He asked me at one point which leg the cast was on-he thinks it’s on the wrong leg. I think we will know a lot more after surgery on Tuesday. and over time. All of that doesn’t mean it’s premanant yet.
I helped with ‘bath’ and changing of sheets. They brushed his teeth and put on lotion and deodarant. That happens every day but I’ve just never been here for it. He definetly isn’t as breakable as I thought he was, lol. We were rolling his to one side and then the other to change the sheets and wash his back. I’m a lot more confortable helping him move his legs and change pillows, etc.
He got his neck brace off today! yay! He is off the fetanyl and no on roxycodin(sp?. He is in a lot of pain-the medicine wears off around 3 hours and he can have it every 4 hours-so I’m doing a lot of fussing with pillows and legs and ice packs. There is a danger that he will get used to the new drug so they can’t just keep upping hte dose. His nurse(clare) is going to have pain services come, but then later the trauma dr. came up and I asked him about that and he basically told me they’d rather try themselves to control it and tried to discourage me from requesting them, so I’m torn. (I am tending to lean towards the nurse since I haven’t even seen this dr. since the first day…) I’m definetly going to ask the nurse tomorrow how tonight went and go from there. I hate leaving him. She just can’t sit there all night and wait for him to need a pillow move or a leg adjustment so he’s more on his own and I can’t imagine how much that would suck.
A few of the dr.’s that came in today said that probably after his surgery on his back and sacrum he won’t be in the icu anymore. That would be cool!
Ha-I told him to smile, and this is what I get. lol
Bathtime-he gets one everyday.
Nasty teeth-they got brushed later.
His leg. That’s gonna be one sweet scar.
This is the brusing on his left hip.
Practicing in the spirometer
Watching tv
August 25th August 25, 2007
I feel like I should put a disclaimer. I have started writing these on my phone while I’m at the hospital, so they are more detailed and I remember all that happens in the evening. The days are starting to run together-is it really only day 5? So, that means that my posts are now almost just a ‘mind-dump’ and the punctuation is horrible, but I just don’t have time to go through and correct everything. Sorry!
I got to the hospital @ 8:30 and parking wasn’t an issue. It was so nice to not have to drive around that parking garage 5 times. Andy’s pee is very normal and he has a little of poo liquid-but nothing to be excited about yet… so more laxatives this morning.
Nothing to talk about for last night while I was gone. Today they extabated him. woohoo! The nurse said that dr. white said he talked to dr. Bauman (the orthopedic surgeon) and the spine dr. (I’m not sure his name) and the surgery is on for Tuesday. They will do the back and his sacrum. I haven’t heard that from dr. white myself, but that would be cool-I thought we were going to have to wait longer to fix the sacrum.
So they took out the breathing tube. And the stomach drain. Heidi brushed his teeth before they took it out and used a mouthwash. She was suctioning as she did it and when she would get the back of his throat he wasn’t liking it. it was hurting him. (But he was moving his legs and feet-like cringing in the pain-im not sure if you can picture that-but i feel like it was some significant leg movement.)
He can’t eat or drink for a few days probably the throat muscles need to get used to swallowing, etc. they don’t want him to aspirate. For awhile he had on a breathing mask with oxygen and a cool mist nebulizer attached.
they took out his chest tube. that looked like it hurt bad. he had a hole probably 1/2 inch wide. dang! now we watch and hope the lung doesn’t collapse again.
Lori and Jed, Joni and Gordon came up and Lori and I went down to eat. she bought me lunch. mom and dad met us there and we found a bigger table.
A dr. I haven’t met yet showed us all the x-rays and ct’s. they are pretty cool. before and after on the legs and ct scans of basically everything. It’s so weird! he made me more nervous for this back surgery though-his sacrum is broken a lot and the spine is broken and tilted to one side so the dr. talked about a few times about fusing all that together-but I cant imagine you’d have much lower back movement if its mostly fused together as one. I really worry about how Andy’s going to come out of this. if any of you know Andy he WON’T be happy ‘just’ being able to walk. he will want to run and jump and bend and stretch. I just pray that he will be alright and an extra prayer that he wont hate what he becomes after this.
he got moved to a new room today. 7th floor. they need more space in shock trauma. the next place he would go is med surg ICU but they are full so we get to go to ccu (cardio care unit) that is the cardiac ICU. she joked that he is probably going to be the youngest one there. but they can do everything that he will need them to do. im sure we’ll miss Heidi! She’s been great. Joni actually got Heidi’s address to invite her to Andy’s coming home party.
just before we went to move him he signed ‘poo’. fine-a-freakin-lutely! I told him to go ahead and push but he was having trouble(have you ever pooped laying down?) and wanted to sit up or roll over but sadly those are both against the rules-he was really frustrated with that. BUT did you just catch what I said? he is having the urge to poo! waahoooooo!!!!!!! I swear, every day feels like such huge progress. im not sure what that would mean to the dr.s but to me it means more hope and reassurance that he wont be incontinent. I’ve never been so happy to hear that the boy needs to poop. 
sad news of the day-he has been hallucinating all day, but at one point said he remembers. I asked what do you remember. he said falling. I asked if he remembers hitting the ground and he said no. then he said something about ropes and tying a knot and then said ‘my fault’. I really was hoping he wouldn’t remember any of it. it made me cry. he said he keeps dreaming about it-about falling. so I asked him if he wanted a blessing and he signed ‘whatever’ so Gordon and Kevin gave him a blessing. he has a lot of time to think and dream and I just hope and pray that he won’t think and dream about the fall. I can’t imagine how horrible that could be.
so they moved him up to the CCU on the 7th floor. same rules, same floor plan(except he is on the other side-like where the medsurg icu would have been on floor 6) and same maximum security. lol but a nicer waiting room with softer cushions and ‘couches’ so you can lay down. and all the tables have pillows and blankets. nice!
Heidi came and said goodbye to us. she is so sweet.
we were able to get back and see him about 6:30. I told them we had been working on getting him alert so that the dr. could come take the neck brace off, but he was already saying his pain level was a 7 so could that happen now? lol (I was totally nice) they called down and talked to Heidi, but the dr. was on 2 traumas so it would be awhile before he could come. who knows if that can happen tonight. maybe we just try again tomorrow. He had been able to poo. (Yay! They took out the rectal tube, so I’m sure that helped too.) and was having gas and was still pooing. he was pushing and having those urges. I love it. I can honestly not put into words how much that means to me. I don’t know if that even means all I hope it does, but I’m sure it means something and ill take it.
he was getting swabs of water very sporadically at shock trauma, but up here he gets a little cup of ice water and I can give him swabs of water more often. he asked me what happens if he gets too much water(cause im sure if it was his choice he would just drink the whole cup) and I told him they don’t want him to aspirate then they have to intabate again-so we were taking it slow. I’ll have to ask tomorrow how fast is too fast. I feel bad leaving him all alone. It’s such a horrible feeling. no one to give him water. no one to advocate for pain meds. no one to scratch his head. 
I was talking to his mom about what my plans are for tomorrow since she is taking the boys and how im torn-I feel its important to be there but I feel like its important to be going to church too and that I was probably going to go to church then come up and he pointed to himself then me then him. I asked if that meant he wanted me to come here and not go to church and he nodded adamantly yes-so I’ll be coming up here. probably just find out when church is here and maybe leave for a few minutes to do that.
by the end of the night he was talking a little better-still really forced and quiet and raspy, but understandable at least.
I love him so much. this has been a really good day but a pretty hard day. I can’t imagine how helpless he feels. I think it will be so much better after this back surgery. we are thinking he will be able to have more movement and probably sit up-so that will be so good. he asks me a billion times a day to move him or sit up etc. it must be miserable.
His still empty poo bag from this morning:
Much clearer pee:
He got extabated! Yay!
The wrapping came off his tummy:
His hand is really bruised still:
Chest tube in:
Chest tube out:
Nasty bruised arm. I hadn’t even seen this till they were taking his chest tube out.
Another tribute to his toes. and the bruising on his foot:
No breathing tube! No stomach suction! No face mask! WooHoo!
