October 24, 2011

Greetings!,

Last night Mom and Don played cards again until 1AM.  Mom gently woke him every two hours to turn.  Bright and early this morning they came in to take the X-ray at 6AM.  They took it right in the room so all Don had to do was take a hit or two off of the Dilaudid machine and wait a few minutes for it to take hold before they tried anything.  He was very specific as to what the X-ray technician could do.  He specified that a blanket needed to be over the board they put on him and for them to get all set up ready to take the X-ray before they tried to move him or place the board under him.  Mom promptly showed the X-ray technician a picture of the wound (a close up) and believe me, a picture is worth a thousand words, especially in this case!!  When he saw the wound he definitely got much more tender and compassionate in his approach.  I really do not think that anyone has any idea how severe Don's case is unless you show them pictures.  They always show extreme caution with handling him after they see the pictures even though we try to verbally tell them that his injuries are serious.  Thank God I brought my portable printer so I could print off the pictures.

Mom said that he slept quite well during the night and it seems as though he is getting into a deeper, more restful sleep.  Now that he is not in such pain and it is under control now he should be seeing much quicker healing in every area of his body.

I arrived abou 9AM this morning.  Don was in quite a deep sleep and he really did not want to be awakened for a morning kiss.  This is quite unusual for him.  He was just motionless and didn't look or feel very well.  Mom said that Dr. Sohn, the plastic surgeon, had stopped in to check on the wound.  It looked really good and she got a picture of it on her cell phone for me so I could see it.  It looks really clean and appears to be healing very nicely!

I had made haircut appointments for Mom and I for 10AM because we both really were starting to look shaggy after over 5 weeks of being here.  So we left just before 10AM and got back about 1PM.  Don had just finished his lunch when I returned from dropping Mom off at the hotel.  He said that he was kinda sick to his stomach and just did not feel very well.  As a result, he pretty much dosed in and out all day.  He did get up on the side of the bed a couple of times only because his body hurts so much from laying down all day.  He just kept complaining of his stomach hurting.  His blood pressure was also running quite low which is very unusual for him.  He usually has almost perfect blood pressure.  He did ask to play a couple of rounds of Skip Bo with me but other than that he really laid low and didn't even talk much.  Mom and I just tried to let him sleep as we feel this is the best thing for him at this point.  This afternoon he had me really scrub his hair good and give him a shave but other than that he really did not do much.

Mom returned about 6PM and we played several rounds of Skip Bo.  About 9PM Donnie was wanting to get up on the side of the bed and he wanted to play Skip Bo too so we got him up and I turned the card playing over to Mom and I packed up and came over to the hotel.  I needed to get these emails out to everyone so you would know what is happening and I had to get the laundry done up once again.

That's all I have for tonight, hopefully tomorrow will bring many good and promising things.  We will keep you posted on the results.

Good night for now,
Don and Carol and Mom (Sharon Zelinko)