The Tuesday Evening Report

Rob was very stable today and had another good day.  The surgeon yesterday tried to brace us for a setback as a result of the surgery, but so far we haven't seen it yet.  Vitals are good and he's still doing fine in the regular bed on his back.  His hemoglobin was way down to 7.1, which is not surprising since I've heard that orthopedic surgery is pretty bloody.  They talked about giving him blood again today but are going to push it until they see what tomorrow's labs are like.  Platelets are good at 230,000 and he's now actually on a blood thinner like most patients who are sedentary in a bed for so long.

The main event today was a two-hour MRI to double check the spine.  No fractures!  :)

I stayed home all day with my own little family and my parents reported that Rob was the most aware they've seen him despite his sedation meds still being fairly high.  He had lots of eye movement, eyebrow raising, and squinting/frowning.  We doubt that he understands the conversation but it does seem like he's trying to take it in.  Whatever he's seeing and hearing must be so strange!  One of the sedation drugs also causes amnesia and the nurses tell us he won't remember any of this, but I do wonder what he sees and hears.   

We haven't heard if he'll make the surgery schedule again tomorrow or not.  Nothing can be scheduled even the day before because it depends on how his night was, but if he's ready for it and if they have a spot I know they would love to get him back in the OR again.  The sooner these breaks are repaired the better off he'll be later, and I would imagine it will shorten his recovery time because everything's recovering at once instead of drawing it out.  If he ends up having surgery tomorrow I'll let you all know. 

What a blessing to be thinking about the length of recovery time.   

We sat and talked about how good the week has been while we ate yummy chicken and bean enchiladas - thank you, Dana!  Mom and Dad also brought a pizza home from Acme (since Brent and I are huge eaters and may have gone a little crazy eating the enchiladas by ourselves) and we loved it!  Thank you, Megan and Damien!