Quiet Saturday

Well, Saturday here at MD Anderson is pretty quiet. Here's how the day has gone so far.

His dressing was taken off and it didn't even need to be cleaned it was so neat still. OT showed up at 8:00 am. They had Roger get out of bed and into a chair for breakfast. They told him he has to have all his meals in the chair and needs to be in the chair for 4-6 hours a day. PT came and had him walk with a walker 30 feet to the corner of the unit and back which proved easier as he came back. They also saw movement in his toes! OT asked Roger when his wife would be there because they wanted to observe Roger taking a shower. A little bit of notice would be good people! So they missed observing his shower, but they didn't need me anyway. He was able to take a shower all by himself although he did need a little bit of assistance getting in and out of the bathroom and sitting down on the shower bench with the walker and drying off only a little bit. But other than that he did it all by himself. He also shaved completely on his own. He tried to have a BM but it was a no-go. He has been given stool softener with every meal and milk of magnesia this morning. If he's not able to go soon, he'll have to get a suppository. Fun! Oh and all your prayers worked on the urination problem yesterday. He's definitely good to go with that now. So thanks! He was so happy to not have to have the foley put back in. His IV was also removed before he took a shower and it looks like he won't have to have it any longer. He's going to pill form for all his anti-seizure and pain medications. And speaking of pain medications, he hasn't had any since 3:35am this morning when they came in to take his vitals and some blood samples. He had a few visitors today, his sister Cindy, my brother Harvey Jr and sister-in-law Brandy and our neighbors Eric and Brea.

He's doing really great. We are blown away with how well he's doing compared to how we thought he might be after the surgery. We were ready for permanent paralysis and maybe speech loss. God is good people!

So we are expecting Sunday to be even more quiet which will be good for Roger to get more rest. We don't think OT or PT will show up on Sunday. While Roger takes a little nap, I'm blogging, uploading pics (click on the image above to go to Flickr for more pics from this adventure) and doing a load of laundry before I head back to Roger's room. We only brought enough clothes for a week (We've been here since last Monday.) and it looks like we will be here a little bit longer. I'm staying at the Rotary House which is a hotel for the family and patients of MD Anderson and they have facilities and activities for long term lodging. It's so nice to just take an elevator to a skybridge that connects directly to the hospital. Worth the extra money.

Until the next update...

~ Holly