Day 2

Steve had a really rough night last night.  He was in a lot of pain.  Late last night they were able to get him somewhat comfortable, but by the middle of the night he started having a lot of pain again.  Stuart (Steve's brother) came by @5:00 am on his way out to head back to Mississippi.  He stayed a couple of hours.  I was still sleeping, but during that 2 hours, Steve went from uncomfortable to excruciating pain again. The doctor made his rounds and then we got the anesthesiologist back to the room again. The problem with Steve's pain is that the main source for numbing his incision area is supposed to be the epidural.  Because they attempted the epidural 5 times and actually ended up having to put it in through the side instead of straight on, it just isn't all of the way in properly.  The catheter is only partly in and therefore only part of the dosage is getting in.  The anesthesiologist (Luke Walker) ordered a stronger medicine for Steve's epidural since the epidural is leaking and probably only about 25% of the medicine is actually making it in.  So, he is getting the bit of medicine from the epidural, pain medication through an IV, Toradol every 6 hours and Robaxin, which is a muscle relaxer every 8 hours.  This combo has kept him fairly comfortable all day.  He was actually able to get out of the bed (with help) and sit up in the chair for about an hour.  While he was sitting up he got nauseous and had a vomiting spell.  He hasn't had anything to eat for 3 days, so there was a bunch of it, but not much to it.  He got back in bed and has been pretty relaxed most of the evening.  The nurse just came in and told us that he will be getting moved to another room tonight.  This room is an ICU type room and meant for usually a 1 night stay the day after a major surgery.  But, since there was not a room available on the floor that he needs to go to, we were going to stay in this room an extra night.  But since a room opened up, they will go ahead and move us in about an hour.

Prayer blanket given to Steven by Cheryl Oller

Dried Sage bundle for Steve from our friends, Steven and Cheris Kotalik.  They recently took a vacation to New Mexico and Sage is supposed to be kept out in your home for healing.  It is a very pretty bundle!