Day 12 - January 2, 2013

(Today is brought to you by Aubrey)

Today was a long day. The family showed up to the hospital around 8:00 a.m. When we showed up dad was still very heavily sedated. They had reduced the sedation by half, which was good, but he was still very out of it. Nathan, Amber and I took turns back in dad's room to help keep him calm as the sedation wears off.

We could tell that dad was less and less sedated and more and more alert by his strength and just by simply watching him. In spending the day by his side we could see the very subtle changes that all pointed to my dad becoming more alert.  When we first came in, his mouth would just hang open and he did not really move his facial muscles too much. By lunch time we had noticed that he was starting to move his jaw, his tongue, and his eyebrows. Dad's eyes slowly came back to us as well. When he first opened his eyes they were glassy and just stared off, not focusing on anything. As the afternoon went by, dad started turning his head toward who was talking and he started focusing his eyes around him too.

We took turns talking to dad, telling him that he was in the hospital that he was okay and that he was being taken care of. Dad was starting to lock eyes with us when we talked. Dad did a lot of moving back and forth trying to get comfortable. Our nurse kept telling Nathan and I that dad could not hear us. She kept telling us that we were reading too much into dad's movements (to this I responded by leaning in and whispering into dad's ear: "It's okay dad, I know you can hear me. I know you are in there. Just ignore scrooge over there.")

It was around 4:00 p.m. when Nathan noticed that the neurologist walk by. Nathan ran out into the hall and asked him to come in and look at dad. Dr. R started talking to dad. Dad started by moving his eyes and head toward the doctor. The doctor was amazed. He moved up next to dad and asked him to squeeze his hand...AND HE DID! Dr. R asked dad to squeeze his left hand...AND HE DID! Dr. R looked at my dad and said, "Clarence can you stick out your tongue?" Dad turned his head looked Dr. R in the face and nodded his head yes! I laughed out loud and started crying! Dr. R proceeded to tell dad that he needed him to actually stick his tongue out...AND HE DID! The nurse in the room said that dad was probably not actually following the doctor's commands. So we looked at dad, he looked at us and stuck his tongue out as far as he could. (The nurse froze...and didn't move for a while). Dad proceeded to move his eyes, hands, and legs on command. Next, dad started moving his mouth. Nathan said, "I think Clarence is trying to talk." Dr. R said, "I think he's just moving, I don't think he's talking." Nathan started talking to dad again, telling him he was in the hospital and that he had been here a few days. My dad looked up at Nathan and mouthed, "How long?" we all froze and Nathan asked dad, "Can you say that again?" Again, dad looked up at Nathan and said, "How long?"

The doctor looked at me, shocked. He simply said, "He really is trying to communicate. I would not have believed you if I had not seen it with my own eyes."

Praise the Lord!!

Once dad started to realize what was going on, his blood pressure and heart rate went through the roof. We shut the lights off and only let one or two people back there at a time. They started him on a new sedative to help him sleep through the night.

Sitting with dad was physically exhausting. When he gets agitated we are having to literally hold him down. Those of you who know my dad know how strong he is. Once the sedation wore off, my dad was fighting with all of his might. Nathan was the only one who could restrain my dad. Even the nurses could not hold him down. Nathan ended up wrestling my dad for six or seven hours straight with only one or two breaks for the nurses to care for my dad.

Today was an amazing day. We laughed, cried, danced. Today was a gift from God. The glory of today goes to God. He has healed my father. We still have a long road of recovery a head of us, but we know that dad is there and that he is fighting with all of his might.