Day 9

After braving through yesterday with a bruised rib, Gregory and David forced Connie to stay home, lie down and enjoy some of those tasty Percocets she was given. It’s hard to keep a Jewish mother down, but Connie begrudgingly agreed to a day of muscle spasms and Harry Potter.

David and Gregory are a bit under the weather as well, but marched to the hospital regardless.  They wore facemasks so they did not infect Burt, and spent the day looking like SARS hypochondriacs.  Even with their colds, they still found the time to get some Apple Cider donuts for the 7 AM nurses shift.  The staff loved the treat, but the Brothers Stern are thinking of switching it up to cinnamon scrolls tomorrow to shake things up a bit, although they are a bit nervous about the combination of sticky fingers and Burt's four dangling IV’s.

To round out the day Burt's temperature went up to 102 so he was not feeling so fantastic.  The nurses gave him another quart of liquid Tylenol which looks disarmingly similar to watered-down summer camp Kool-Aid.  He did not really notice, as he was extremely fatigued today.

Given his temperature, rehab was a bit abbreviated.  The occupational therapist did not want him to burn energy by sitting up and instead just stretched him out.  They said he is a bit looser than yesterday, especially in his elbow.  The real news though is how much strength he has in his left hip.  He was able to move his left leg laterally with minimal assistance.  This is great to hear, because if he can get his knee to do a bit more, he is one step closer to walking with a cane someday.

Burt spent most of the day waiting for the bedpan gods to smile down upon him.  This gave Gregory and David a lot of time to kill, so in the middle of the day they decided to go pillow shopping for Burt.  They figured with all the time that he is spending on it, they should get him a good one. 

Off they went to ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’ and set up a blind testing by emulating similar conditions that Burt is under.  They found that the most expensive one was only good if it was fluffed up now and then which is not the easiest thing for a guy with one arm.  After much trial and error they settled on the Allergy Free pillow.  Tonight they will wash an additional allergy case to go around it and label it Burt Stern's pillow, so his roommate Don doesn't get up in the middle of the night and steal it. He may have a gash in his skull, but it's the quiet ones you gotta watch.