Saturday- April 26th

Every time the doctor's ask Stephen where he would rate his pain, he'd usually say 7, or 8... but today it reached a 9 and we started discussing the possibility of doing a pain block. (Like an epidural.) 

The problem was, in order to do the procedure he would have to lay on his stomach for 10 minutes... something that seemed absolutely impossible considering the fact that even the weight of the blanket on his chest was painful and made it hard to breathe. 

Up to this point they had been injecting hydro-morphine, which is 10 times stronger than morphine. In order to do the procedure they had to give him something that was even 10 times stronger than that. It was so intense that he forgot who he was for a moment. It took the assistance of 9 nurses to do the procedure, and they wouldn't let family near the room, but we could hear the screaming. 

However after it was over things started to improve!

He was able to move the bed into an almost sitting position, and was able to lift one of his arms all the way to his ear.

He is also able to eat a little bit now. Just a few bites of mac and cheese here and there. 

He started speaking more, and his breathing started to improve a little. When he does his breathing treatments he can actually feel the ribs moving and cracking, but thanks to the pain block it doesn't hurt too badly.

Dad has had SO many visitors! He is a popular guy! On the night of the accident the waiting room was filled with friends and loved ones- standing room only. We are so grateful for the love and support we have been shown. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, has been a tender blessing to us.

Our family has pretty much taken over this portion of the hospital wing, thank goodness it's been empty. There are so many empty rooms available, most of them twice the size of his...I seriously don't understand why they didn't give him a bigger room! 

David and Joey were planning on taking shifts during the night, staying here with Dad. But they decided it's much more fun to be here together. (Plus it takes a few strong men to help him get up to use the bathroom. But YAY for progress because up until now they've had to use a catheter which was pretty painful for him.) 

The boys had all kinds of plans on how they were going to sneak another recliner into the room so they could both have a comfy place to sit during the night while they played mine craft on their laptops. (We Clydes know how to party!) It was a pretty detailed plan which included scouting out the options in all the empty rooms, and then one of them was going to distract the nurses, and keep them occupied, while the other channeled his inner ninja skills and snuck the chair into dad's room. 

You'll be happy to hear they did end up with two recliners! But it wasn't a result of a stealthy spy mission... Dad just simply asked the nurse for another one. :) 

It was so wonderful to see Dad in such good shape today. We are eternally grateful each day for the amazing progress he is making. We know that prayers are being answered!