Tuesday, January 23, 2007

post from mom....

Dear Family, Friends and all of those who have lifted us in prayer

My heart is so full and so empty at the same time. Is that possible? This is a journey that is not familiar. I’m not sure how to do this. Thankfully, God the Father already knew this and gave all of you to me to help me find my way through it. There aren’t words that fully describe how thankful we all are to all of you for your prayers, food, notes, calls, emails, aspirin, blankets, bedding, numerous offers of help, babysitting, errands, etc. Everyone should be so loved.

Please know that Jesus has wrapped his loving arms around us and his angels to hold us up, through you. It is true,
It is “peace that passes all understanding”.

Jim would be so amazed about all of this fuss over him. But my darling husband would feel so loved. I am keeping a visiting journal of all who have stopped by and we will print out the blog messages to put with them. He will be so encouraged and blessed.

I have the greatest kids. They are strong, loving, protective of Jim and I and each other. Please pray for their hearts and physical stamina through this. Their faith is strong and they have given their father to our heavenly father but pray for more time with him.

Keep praying. If I can ask for a personal request that would make me feel so much better it would be this. I want to see my husband’s eyes and know he knows I am here.

Thank you all….and may God get the glory for all he is doing and may each and everyone of you be blessed for you love and kindness to us at this time and many others in our lives.

brief update...

we just went back for visiting time and dad's ICP number is hanging around 20-21....they have asked for us to keep the stimulation to him as little as possible. we have decided to keep the visitors back in his room to immediate family only. the doctor says that this is pretty "expected", but it makes its hard to accept when his levels stayed from 1-5 for so long. the CCP number is above 80, so this is positive. pray that the swelling goes down.

rough morning...

Got up this morning at around 5:30 am and put a call in to the nurse's station to see if i could see my dad. The nurse got on the phone and told me that he would prefer me to wait a bit. He then proceeded to tell me that dads numbers got a little worse in the morning...about 5 am, dads ICP went a up to about 21. The ICP is the number that measures pressure in the head. Yesterday afternoon, dad's ICP was about 7. They would like to keep this number below 20. There is also another number that is used for measurment called the CPP (i think). They would like this number to stay above 50 and it also dropped below that number. The two numbers changing together caused for a little frightful moment. They gave dad something called "Mannitol" to bring his numbers back to "normal", and they did move a little. The last that i checked, dads ICP was down to 17 and his CPT was up to 56. We spoke with Dr. Young this morning after he checked on dad and he told us that dad is stable and his numbers are under control. He also told us to not be greatly alarmed by this...that in this first 72 hours, it is expected that dad have some swelling and it is possible to have this swelling for up to 2 weeks or so. There is quite a road ahead of us!
Mom slept thru all of this, thankfully and got almost 8 solid hours of sleep! She so needed it! Thanks you for your continued prayers...we will update you a little later

-A