Another Good Day!

Hi all.  The below is a sum up of jamie's previous 24 hours as written by my dad.  It is an inspiring piece
Today was uneventful...still hugely positive....  Jamie had a great day...but again he must sometimes be reminded of that fact.  Hi all--Tom passed the computer to me, Tom Sr., because I was with Jamie from yesterday around 12:30 to today at around 3:00.  I won't write with Tom's humor, but I can give you a pretty good account of the day and in my opinion, it was a great day.  Why?  Because yesterday Jamie was truly physically uncomfortable more or less all day and there are many ways to help him with that in addition to the meds--putting pillows at different places partially under his body and shifting them frequently--per his instructions.  Also, he lays on a blue pad and he is moved by pulling on the pad--from one side to the other side--sometimes only an inch helps.  The pad is also used to "roll" him for any number of processes that involve exposing his back side--you can easily guess what one of those processes is.  So today Jamie asked me for a total of two pad pulls all day.  And you could tell from his demeanor that he was way, way more comfortable today.  So in my mind, today was a great day.  But today he also felt "fluish."  He had more nausea than yesterday.  In mind it is completely expected that if a part of his game elevates noticeably in a day, another part of his game might slip some.  Kind of like finding your driver and having your short game suffer from one round to the next.

Jamie ate really good at breakfast and again at lunch.  He was focusing on eating well because protein is important to his recovery and also because his big goal for the day was a serious BM.  Mind you, Jerry the guy in the next bed who was released today went 8 days without a BM when he hit SRMemorial.  So those of you who know Jamie fully understand that he doesn't waffle much with his expectations.  In any case, his dream did come true.  And after waiting patiently all day, it came with suddenness and force.  And while some of you may think it is gross or too graphic, there was substantial accompaniment that might suggest that we will have to repaint the ceiling when Jamie checks out.  Most people don't pray for gas.  People in Jamie's condition do, so some pressure in his inflated abdomen was finally relieved if for only a short time.
The other really big news is that Jamie got his clam shell body brace today and it is pretty cool.  It is much smaller than I expected--custom-molded fiber glass with a soft lining--one for the back and the other for his front with three straps on each side that are adjustable with Velcro.  Funny, but our first reaction was identical--that Walker (his Son) will grab it the moment Jamie is done with it because it looks like armor.  It also looks a bit like a wrestler's title belt, so we are trying to think of some embellishment for it.  So I exited for some chow while he did a series of exercises with his new brace and they were astonished at his range of motion--another super sign.  Have to admit, however, that when they roll him to get the back panel in place or get his slim-line pan under him, it hurts.  However, in the same breath, he essentially rolls himself with his left arm pulling hard on the side of the bed rail, so he does have some control but just gets it done.  So the original plan for today was that with the brace on, he would "dangle."  Yeah, right ladies--not the kind of dangle you are thinking.  To dangle in the hospital means sitting on the edge of the bed with your legs hanging off the side.  The goal was for him to sit up and he would have had some xrays in that position, but it was postponed because Jamie "felt like shit."  So tomorrow we know one thing for sure that will be on the agenda.

Another big plus for the day is that Brent came up for about 3 hours, and since Brent has been through this only much, much worse, they had a good talk.  These two guys are really, really close, so Brent's visit was a huge boost.  And then, of course, Jamie gets Gail back after having dealt with the second string for 3 days in a row.  Gail and I had a really good pass-down and then I left them to have what I expect was some very much needed time together with Jamie in markedly better shape than when Gail last saw him.  Tomorrow will be huge--all the family will be there in shifts for at least a few minutes of the day as we pass through for parts elsewhere.  Most important, of course, is all 7 "cousins."  I suspect he will sleep damn well tomorrow night and maybe even tonight as he hardly dozed a bit today.

So that is my post for the day--not with Tom's humor, but at least with some detail and my impression of what was a damn good day.  Not sure what you should expect from now on--maybe Kendra will be willing to post some intermittent progress reports.  Tom Sr. Until Tomorrow...