By Saturday evening he was started on steroids and antibiotics as the the secretions from his lungs had become infeced and he was having difficulty with his breathing and there was concern that he may be at risk of pneumonia.
On Sunday morning the steroids had started doing thir job by loosening up the mucous in Stephen's lungs but the problem with this was that these secretions were so thick that it was difficult to suction them out of his trach. As the day progressed Stephen had a choking fit which was horrendous and which left him totally exhausted. The good news was that he didn't have a pneumonia but has been diagnosed with Asthma and it was this which was causing his breating difficulties.
Monday saw a more settled day but he still was having trouble with tightness in his chest. To add insult to injury Stephen has had to have 2 wisdom teeth and 3 molars extracted today! All these teeth had vertical fractures which were caused by the impact of his head when he crashed in Baltimore. Today he is allowed no visitors and will remain heavily sedated. Of course this is a temporary setback but it halts his progress for all the other therapies such as physio, occupational health etc. It looks like he may have to remain in rehab longer than expected. This is so frustrating both for him and the family as we all want him home as soon as we can.
Stephen's mind is so strong. He is becoming so more aware of what his body needs and what he needs to do to continue weaning from the ventilator and how to control his nerve pain. He is on so much medication I am surprised he has an appetite but he still manages to eat Cadburys Chocolate Digestive biscuits!
A couple of other sad events have happened in the short time I have been here. One of Stephen's respiratory nurses also works at the children's hospital here in Denver. Whilst she was ther last week she went into a room of an 11yr old boy who had a huge poster of Stephen on his wall. She told him that she was 'working' with Stephen (as he didn't know Stephen was injured) and this boy told her how much he loved Stephen and followed him. He asked her to give Stephen a sticker which he had out of a magazine. The nursecame back, told Stephen the story and Stephen was starting to put together some souvenirs for her to take back to him. The next day Stephen's nurse came in and told Stephen that this poor little boy had passed away. Its so sad. However, Stephen has decided that he wants to become involved with the children's hospital in Denver and I am going to speak to them on his behalf and to get together some BMX mags, stickers, souvenirs etc and send them over.
The other sad event is Tara Lanas, the mountain biker. As you are probably aware she crashed at the weekend and is paraylsed from the waist down. Tara's mum, friend and trainer came to Craig Hospital yesterday where I met them. It looks as if Tara will do her rehab here, when there is a bed available, so Stephen and her will be able to spend some time together. I am sure that this will be motivational and positive for both of them. Hopefully the next few days will be calmer but who knows. Your perception of rehab is just physio and general therapy but there are still so many other clinical issues that need to be taken care of. Once Stephen has recoveered from his oral surgery I really hope he will be physically strong enough to continue weaning off the ventilaor which will give him such a better quality of life and then perhap his body will have the strength to start and respond again.
Thank you all once again for your good wishes and support, it means so much.
Cynthia
Picture from www.stephenmurray.org
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It's been a while since we have done an update but there has been so much going on in the background. Although we are in daily contact with Melissa regarding Stephen's condition, its better to do an update when one of the family is visiting Stephen as all of Melissa's time is taken up with looking after Stephen's physical care and flying back and forth to California to see Mason and Seth. I have been busy with Stephen's benefit jam here in the UK and so this update is from our Mam, Cynthia. Hi, After being away from Stephen for 5 weeks, I had expectation of this visit being more relaxing than when I was here in Denver the last time. How wrong can you be! I arrived late on Friday evening and Stephen was in good spirits although he had just started having some issues with secretions from his lungs.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.