Update-- Friday, January 20th, 11:00 p.m.

Yesterday a lady from California, who was at the hospital training the speech therapists how to use a new valve for the ventilator so people can talk, came into Joseph’s room and asked if they could use him as a guinea pig and show everyone how to put it in and how to use it. He said, “Sure.” They had him talk for a while, and then took it off. She came back in the afternoon and had another group of people she wanted to train, and he got to talk again for a bit. By the end of the day he had about 20 people owing him slurpees.

Joe had a really good night last night. The nurse was great and let him sleep. This morning his fever was back up to 103.6. The Rehab people came in and made him sit up in his bed. They told him they would like to have him there for a 1/2 hour, and he made it for an hour. They also put the valve in the ventilator so he could talk for a little while.

The doctor decided that they needed to see if the fluid they found around the surgery on his neck was causing the infection. The procedure was really hard on Joe. They had him laying on his side with out his neck brace on for about an hour. They did give him some pillows to help support his head, but it was really stressful and painful to be that way for so long. Initially they didn’t want to take any fluid out of his neck because it would be difficult and possibly cause more damage. They have been treating this “invisible infection” with antibiotics and Tylenol, but even when they increase the dosage his fever still rises. We will find out if it is the fluid that is causing the infection tomorrow.

-Liz