Quality Time With Clark

A couple days ago when Clark's pain level was at 10, he sent me a text to ask his Bishop from church to come give him a blessing for the pain and to soon be closed. Upon first entering Clark's room, I stood beside Clark's bed and he stared at me as if he wanted to tell me something, then folded his hands across the top of his head. I thought he was gesturing that the hole where the bolt had been was healing. He shook his head no and then typed out "blessing", I replied, "you want another blessing"? He again shook his head no. They typed out, "in the blessing it said I would be blessed to rest and tolerate the pain", then he smiled and typed all he has done is sleep the past couple days. We nodded to each other in agreement that the Lord has comforted him to sleep well recently and was so very thankful for Bishop Sampson and Eric Bischke for taking time in their day to administer this blessing upon Clark. I was able to keep Clark awake for about 3 hours straight. I read several comments from the blog to him, he continues to be amazed with all the support and prayers his receives. I thought he might be getting tired from me reading so much to him and asked if we should read more of his blog later? He gestured with his hands for me to keep them coming. He typed to me that the doc said "if his mom would rub his feet and massage his legs back and forth it would help with the swelling still in his feet". I said that one of those single nurses should be doing that. He shook his head no and pointed at me. I was thrilled to assist. I had such a great day with Clark yesterday!

Clark is scheduled for surgery again at 2PM today. This time they plan to sew a Velcro strip to each side of his belly. This will allow them to pull the skins closer and closer together as the swelling reduces daily. Once the skins get close enough to stitch together, the Velcro will be removed and then finally sutured closed. Because Clark's white blood cell count has been extremely low the past several days, they are also going to do a "bone marrow biopsy" today. They expected that it should have been going up by now so they are looking for answers "why". They will do this while he is in surgery. They will enter into his hip and remove marrow. Some results will be back within 24 hours, other results will not be available for 10 days. One cause for this depletion of white blood cells could be medication and we are certainly hoping that will be the case with Clark and not something else new that we will face. We are also hoping they take the breathing tube out of his mouth today and we can again talk to each other. It was such a joy to hear his voice a few days ago even though it was weak and words minimal.

Clark has "thrush" on his tongue from all the medication. So not only is he very thirsty but a thick coating houses over his tongue almost making it hard to open his mouth. When he can open it, it looks like a taffy factory with taffy being stretched across the opening. I told him he probably doesn't know what food even tastes like by now its been so long since he ate. He shook his head no and pointed at the TV meaning he is watching all the food commercials on TV. I then asked him what he was most hungry for. He said, "the two for one steaks at Applebee's". He always orders that same meal when we have eaten there before. I'll be happy to take him to dinner at Applebee's when he is up to it.