Jason Update 7

Although I of course am not too fond of being in the hospital, I love looking around our room. It's obviously much better this evening with Jason's "ruggedly" handsome face in here, but it's also life a little life story wrapped up in 100 sq ft.



My sweet and lovely friends have filled our room with flowers, food, cookie bouquets, toiletries, at least 50 magazines, photos of Jason, me and Kashmir, and even a beautiful framed picture of our "Theme Hymn" that very well may be my favorite gift we've received.



Jason's friends have filled the room with obnoxious stuffed animals, including but not limited to an "It's a Girl" fluffy pink elephant, Buzz lightyear balloons, toddlers, brand new babies (we loved meeting you Liam!!!) and most importantly laughter... and some Fantasy Football banter.

It's so awesome to look around the room and see exactly what roles we play. I am such the nester and nuturer, and Jason is hands-down the fan favorite. I always said (even in our Vows Ronnie scripted) that Jason has always made me cooler. He has always said I've made him a better person. In such a trivial, and yet symbolic way I think you can look around this tiny room and see the merging of our two distinct personalities into the life we share. Thank you all for the parts you all play in our life.



Okay, enough of my "alone with my thoughts" drabble...I know you want an update!



We both did get a bit of rest and Jason is snoozing now, waiting for his "push release" pain medicine. He returned from his ct scan and we struggled for a while trying to get him as comfortable as possible. Even in the ER, he never indicated his pain as more than a "6" on the 1-10 spectrum, and this afternoon he was grumpily insisting over and over again he was a 10. Seeing him so agitated has been one of the hardest parts so far. He wasn't believing us that he was up higher, or straight, or in the 'right' position, or that it had only been five minutes since we asked for his medicine. I can tell he is in great pain just by how much his disposition suffered this afternoon. His doctors came in around 3:30 and explained once they got him open they realized it was a little more unstable than they thought and that's what took some additional time, but he responded well and it went smoothly. They also brought us print outs of before/after/during XRays of the Rod insertion, and then a great image (i was a little fuzzy on really interpreting the aforementioned images) that clearly shows the rod placement and his incision, with exactly twenty sutures. They were able to do it posterially (through the back of the neck) and both rods go through all three vertebrae (C4, C5, C6). Things Jason did not know until they came in were that he will suffer a 10-15% reduction in range of motion when healed, and that they had to cut his hair in the back.

After they left, we both were left alone for a few hours and got some good rest. This evening a couple of Jason's best friends came by to see him, including Sarah and Dave again. I feel like they are my personal 'Google.' With Sarah's medical knowledge and Dave in Spine Device Sales I feel so at peace with them explaining things to me! They both thought he looked good, and we all reiterated how pleased we were with the decision to operate especially knowing it was a little worse than they thought.

So, now that the big fish have been fried, we seem to be thinking more about other issues. His broken nose seems to be really brusing and irritating his left eye, and right now he has started running a fever. They gave him some antibiotics and fever reducer and may run some cultures, possibly even around of xrays or something. We don't want his body weakening! We also may try to get a follow-up with a hand Doctor tomorrow to just evaulate his broken wrist again. He is definitely already getting restless in one position, and has begun to cough up a lot of junk probably settling from laying down in one position as well. All things to just keep an eye on and pray don't materialize into anything bigger.

I have not been out of Memorial Hermann since 11:31pm on Sunday evening and am hoping to be able to get home tomorrow and bathe, grab some fresh clothes, and tidy up our down stairs living quarters for when we come home. Many of you know our home is stilted, so our main house and bedroom is on the second floor, with only exterior stairs going up to the decking where you would enter our front door. Though we will work on climbing stairs immediately, we are thinking it will be best to live for a while downstairs where there is no stairs and oddly enough, a handicap accessible bathroom courtesy of the previous owner's elderly parents they took care of. The area is definitely not as comfy as upstairs, but we are so glad to have it as an option and take up residence there...again. We actually lived there for a month and half in the wake of Hurricane Ike after our downstairs repairs were complete in month five and they had just begun our upstairs. Yes, for those of you in the blog-world who don't know us well....suffice it to say we've had a lot of obstacles in our three and a half year marriage. Sometimes you just have to laugh and wonder what made God think we were so strong??? When Jason and I were getting married, I decided to learn a little more about our last name, 'Hardcastle', and actually it is a reference to Proverbs 18:10 The Name of the LORD is a Strong Tower, the Righteous run in to it and they are safe. In my head somehow that transitioned really well, but now I've been sitting here staring at the keyboard trying to eloquently tie this all back in, and I am afraid I'm fresh out of eloquence. I do know the Lord is our shelter and has been through the literal and metaphoric storms we've weathered and that we are in His safekeeping.

Thank you all for your love, encouragement and concern. I wish I could hug every single one of you! Someday soon.... xoxo hh