Sam, Jam and Harper Jane!

Dear friends,

Today (Tuesday) Sam is doing as well as can be expected. He said he got a good night’s sleep despite having to call a nurse in for more pain meds every few hours. He has just one roommate now and they are already best buds. This man is 70 and Sam “loves older people”. Sam already told him we are praying for him (he had the same surgery Sam had). They sat up and ate breakfast together and Sam learned all about his roommate’s life and family. I think all of the staff here at the hospital are amused by Sam’s desire to ask so many questions and get to know everyone who comes in the room. He makes everyone laugh.

They had a tough time managing his pain again this morning. They tried to give him pills once again for his headache and once again they made him sick to his stomach. Then there was a long process of fixing everything.

First, they tried to give him medicine through his IV to help with his stomach ache. Well, the IV was not in correctly so all of the medicine just spilled onto his bed. They “fixed” the IV and tried again. Again, medicine spilled out. So then the nurse asked if he would be okay with getting a shot in the bum until they could get a new IV in (or so we thought). Sam said “okay” and turned on his side. Apparently our German is just not good enough because we misunderstood a shot for an INSERT!!! We all laughed and it makes for a good story, right?

To all of Sam’s guys- Sam can’t wait to tell you the story in his words : )

His headache still had not improved and the IV still wasn’t in so they gave him a shot in his stomach for the head pain. After all this he slept for awhile and when he woke up he said he felt the best he has felt since we’ve been here. He sat up and ate lunch and I read him ALL of the kind messages you all have been sending me via Facebook and email. THANK YOU!

We just got a flower delivery from Sam’s football team in Wiesbaden.

The place I am staying at is wonderful. Our friends did go back to Mainz yesterday so I was a little worried about making it back to the apartment at night but everything went just fine. It is just a 7 minute bus ride from the hospital to the neighborhood where the apartment is.

I just spoke with the doctor and he said there had been some blood in his head for 3-6 weeks before the football game on Saturday. The game shook him up some more and then there was just too much blood coming into the brain and that is what caused the pain and sickness. One doctor said his brain was shifted 4mm to one side of his head, ouch!

After lunch I crawled in bed with Sam and we slept for about an hour. Then his head really started to hurt. They gave him some medicine but it just wasn’t working and his headache got worse and worse. After 30 minutes the nurse finally gave him another shot in the stomach and about 20 minutes later his head finally started to get better. I think the problem is that we waited until his head started to hurt to ask for medicine. For some reasons the nurses don’t just give it to him automatically so we have to remember to ask for meds before his head even hurts.

They will come to take the drains out of his head tomorrow or the next day.

I think that is all I can think of right now.

Again, thank you all for encouraging notes. I read every since one to Sam, it is good for both of us.

Specific prayers:



-Pain management

-No long term damage

-No complications with the drains

-Starting to be able to walk around the halls. They said if he feels well enough he can do that but so far he has been too tired. When he doesn’t have a pounding head ache, he is in a good mood but he still feels pretty tired, we talk really quiet and he stays lying down. He needs some energy!

-Safety for me when I return to the apartment at night.