Tuesday, August 4, 2009 9:23 PM

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 9:23 PM, EDT

Today was not the best day. We arrived at the hospital anticipating the worst of having to talk to Kyle and explain what happened, but we were prepared and ready to begin a new phase of his recovery.

His vitals are still strong, color is very good and he is breathing over his ventilator, but he is still sedated and has a breathing tube down his throat. He had a CT scan scheduled for 11 am and then scheduled to have a permanent IV line put in his arm to assist with IV delivery and helps prevent infection of being stabbed all the time. He also had a filter placed near his abdomen to prevent blood clots from traveling into his lungs and heart. Kyle returned to his room around 2 and we stayed with him for hours while we were told they would begin reducing his pain meds to get him to wake up and then make sure he was alert and stable and progressively take him off the ventilator. We just wanted to hear his voice.....

6:00 pm rolls around and they tell us they are going to keep him sedated overnight. No plans today to take him off the vent....my stress level and frustration factor hit the roof!! They don't have the staff to monitor him overnight if they took the tube out...could we not have been told this earlier? It was as if a brick had just been thrown at us....now we have to wait another day.

This is very worrisome for us as this just prolongs his recovery and rehab. It's one more day that he can't start preparing for his future and getting healthy again and there's nothing we can do about it.

We are working on getting him into a rehabilitation hospital in Washington, DC so his family and friends can come and visit and share his experiences and accomplishments. As soon as this is determined, we'll be sure to let you all know.

Gary and I are so touched by the number of friends that have reached out to us and our family. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful people in our lives, from everyone at WHS where Gary works to my colleagues at AER and all the wonderful members of AER that have written me, to our neighbors, Kyle's schoolteachers and his close friends and their parents, to Karl and Jessica's friends and their families, and of course Gary's relatives and my family and our extended family....we are so blessed to have you in our lives and in Kyle's life. He is a very special kid and we love him so much and we just want him to come home and be Kyle again...every night after we get home and ready for bed, we hear a car coming down the street and think it's Kyle coming home from work....it's just not fair.

Thank you again for ALL your words of encouragement and help. You have no idea how much it means to us and to Kyle. We love you all and hope to see you real soon and to have Kyle with us, that's the most important goal in our lives.

Bette Anne and Gary