Gwinnett Medical Revisted

10:30 p.m. Monday

The neurologist who treated Paul the night of his accident will also be taking care of Paul this time around. He was glad to see Paul looking well and explained that they will do surgery at 11:00 A.M. Tuesday morning. They will put in an internal shunt that will not be seen and one we will not have to take care of in any way. It does mean that Paul will have some of his head shaved again, but my understanding is that it won't be a large area. (Paul never did like the last shave cut he had, and while he never said anything, he stared at his head each morning as if he was trying to figure out who would do such a thing to him.) We are very glad to know what has been causing his headaches, but were disappointed he has to have another hospital stay and more surgery. There go the pounds he had finally gained....sigh. He was up to 129.5 lbs from 117 a month ago. My hope is that he won't lose but a few pounds. In the whole scheme of things, Paul is still well on his way to recovery and we remain very hopeful that without his headaches, he will zoom back to the level he was and then keep on advancing.

Jon had to get back to the office today after we knew he would be admitted, and then came back tonight after work. I quickly went home to get things together to spend the night, as Paul does not like being alone when he is in a hospital. It is very hard for him to orient himself when he wakes at night. Tomorrow morning, I will be reminding him again where he is. Today he asked where he was after we had been in the ER room for about 5 hours. I said the hospital and he said he knew that, but which one. When I told him Gwinnett Medical, he nodded. Then he asked if he would be staying here and I said it appeared that he would. His immediate response was "Rats." He did a great job remembering where he was all day. Tonight he has been given some pain medication so he should get a really good rest after so many nights of waking around midnight and trying to go downstairs to get some Tylenol!

I went into the house tonight and I felt some sadness. Abby met me at the door with her teddy bear and when she realized Paul was not with me, she walked upstairs with her bear in her mouth and sat at the foot of Paul's bed. I could not help but cry at how it hurt seeing Paul's things left as they were this morning and his dog visibly affected by his absence. Abby got up and came over and licked my hands, then went back to the foot of Paul's bed. I got Paul's pillow off his bed and let her rest on it. I am hoping she won't feel so bad if she has his smell close to her. Michael is going to sleep in Paul's room so that Abby won't be alone in there tonight. I think that it was just too reminiscent of those first days for me and my guard came down for awhile.

The nurses were happy to see Paul looking so good, as they had not seen him since he was wheeled out of here to go to Shepherd. He was not walking or talking back then. The one nurse said she was glad to hear his voice and said it was a very nice one. I am sure we will see more nurses we know on the day shift, as we got into the room around 5 p.m. this evening. It was nice to see familiar faces and it was good to share all of Paul's accomplishments with these wonderful women who took such great care of Paul. May God bless them all for their gift of giving.

Please keep Paul, the nurses and doctors in your prayers so that his surgery will go well and we can get Paul back home quickly. My sadness only lasted a little while this evening and then as I gathered the relic of St. Paul, the Blessed Oil of St. Padre Pio and the soil from Apparition Hill in Medjugorje where the Blessed Mother has been appearing, the calm returned to my mind and my soul was filled with the Peace of Jesus. I know whose hands are guiding us all and my wish remains to do God's will with a firm YES. Living this season of Lent, we are reminded to offer up everything so that it will be joined with Jesus to be used according to God's will. We will gladly let God handle the rest.

Updates will be given as quickly as possible tomorrow!

God bless you all on the first day of Spring. New beginnings for us all, Praise be to God.
Love,
Jon and Rebecca