Thursday, November 17, 2011 1pm

Another long night last night. About ten he was transferred to room 2119 on the med/surg floor. Chris was still very restless and pulling off the ekg leads, the blood pressure cuff, the pulse oximeter and then at one point yanked the IV out of his hand. Sam and Janet stayed with him until 3 to keep him from pulling everything off, then Janet's dad Arlo came and Sam went home to sleep. The nurses tried twice to put in a catheter and were unsuccessful both times. The one thing he dreaded the most about having this procedure was the catheter insertion. For surgery they put it in and pulled it out while he was under anesthesia but they put another one in while he was in recovery Tuesday night - no anesthesia, and then twice last night - no anesthesia and just caused him such pain and distress. It was horrible for him, Janet felt so so bad. Anyway, with Arlo watching over him, Janet slept for a few minutes. Janet's mom, Norma came at 6 so with the two of them watching over him, Janet slept for a few more minutes then left to go to work. This morning the neurosurgeon came in and said he thinks the restlessness and confusion is likely from the higher dose of steroids he is taking to decrease the swelling. Dr. said he would start tapering him off the high dose now and see how he does. Chris was also bleeding a bit from a site close to the incision point, not sure what happened but assume he scratched it open since he keeps trying to scratch that area. When the Neurologist came in this morning he cleaned up the site, replaced some of the staples - which I'm sure didn't feel good either. He also said he thought Chris was too sedated from the Morphine they gave him to help relax him and handle the pain from the catheter attempts. He said he was going to give Chris something to counteract the sedating effects of the morphine. Norma said when he is awake now he is more alert. He is also able to tell his birthdate and age today. Yesterday he knew the birthdate but tried to make us believe he was 23 and if not 23, then 27 or 38. Nice try honey but that gray hair screams 53! Physical therapy came in this morning and got him up in a chair for 45 minutes. No walking yet so probably not going home today. Also was going for a CT scan today apparently as part of the protocol and not because they are looking or expecting to find anything. Greg and Jonathan were there to visit last night, and Ryan is over there today with Arlo and Norma. That's it for now. We continue to pray for God's mercy and grace, for peace and for healing. We know that all of you are doing the same. We love you all and are keeping you in our prayers as well. Talk to you later. Love, CJSRJ