Wednesday Update

I just want to say upfront that I am so sorry that I haven’t been able to update the blog in so long. Things have been so hectic that I haven’t been able to get home to do it and there is no time during the day to get to a computer. This will change tomorrow.

Roger moved into a room on the regular floor on Monday. Although he is in his own room, he is not ready for visitors just yet. His schedule is hectic during the day right now and while he is just trying to cope with healing from the surgery and regaining functions, he needs a little while longer before he can receive visitors. As soon as we know when he can, I will post it on this blog. In the meantime, if you would like to send him your well wishes, please send cards only to the address below.

NNMC
8901 Wisconsin Avenue
Bldg 10 Ward 5 East
Room 9 Patient Roger Mommaerts
Bethesda MD 20889-5601

Roger’s recovery is going well, but slow. Today he got a shower by three beautiful women, including his wife. He was able to shave. He sat in a chair several times today. His occupational and physical therapists are seeing marked improvement. Several times today he moved his leg on his own. We set up his laptop tonight and he was very happy to hear his music. So happy that he got emotional. He can only use his left hand so typing exhausts him and email replying is out of the question right now. He was not able to read any emails today due to his schedule, but he should be able to begin reading emails tomorrow. He also had another CT today and hopefully we’ll hear the results of that.

He is excited during the day, but night time has not been easy for him. His sleep-wake cycle has been interrupted and although he is staying up all day, he can’t sleep well at night. He began having muscle spasms Monday which is a good sign that he is on the road to recovery. But when he gets frustrated or nervous or anxious, usually due to nursing staff issues at night at the hospital, the spasms are so severe that his entire body shakes and this doesn’t help him sleep. This also leads to profuse sweating which has caused him to be pretty much naked all the time. We told him he was going to be known as the Naked Sergeant. His nights are extremely restless. Last night was another long, no sleep night for him, me and our friend Cassie who is here to help. Thank the Lord she is here. She’s a mother of two and is helping me so much. She is so strong and I wouldn’t have made it to now without her. Her years of wisdom as a mother are coming in very helpful for me. Although I’d love to stay at the hospital all day and help Roger do everything, I would not be doing him any good if I did.

And he is having a hard time with how slow his recovery will be. Every day he improves, but it’s not going as fast as he’d like and it’s extremely hard for an active, completely independent person to feel completely dependent. I say feel dependent because he feels this way even though he is doing many things on his own and can. But not having complete control of his right side is hard on him. Which is completely understandable.

I’ve got to cut this short and can’t include all the details due to the amount of things that have happened in the past two days and how exhausted I am right now. But I would like to ask for your prayer over all these things. Also, I am sorry but I can’t keep up with all the phone calls, voicemails and emails right now. I read the emails when I get a chance and they are very uplifting and encouraging and I want to apologize now because I just can’t reply to them all. And as I know how you can help, I will let you know. There’s just not much we can do right now other than pray for Roger.

Thank you all so much for your prayer, love and concern. Please add for Roger to feel the Lord’s will and presence through this adventure.

Until next time, love you.