Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....: 01/27/07

Saturday, January 27, 2007

quiet night....

Its a quiet nite. I'm on the couch in the ICU lounge typing, my mom is reading all of the comments that have been left and gaining great encouragement and my sister Kelli is reading the "guest log" and also gaining great encouragement. Your love and your prayers have definitely carried us in times that we can not walk on our own. Thank you for your encouraging words and your prayers. Please continue writing as it is something we look forward to daily! You all mean the world to us. Dad is resting. His blood pressure is staying stable. Mom is getting ready to go to sleep after she goes in to visit dad and kelli will head to bed as well. Joe will be strolling in here any minute to help me cover the "3rd shift". I will give you more of an update tomorrow morning.

-A

positive update!

We got the results back from the CT scan and got good news. The scan didnt show any aparent bleeding, just "residual" blood. With that information, the doctors decided to remove the ICP sensor...or in laymans terms...the dipstick that he had in his head. Although, still considered "critical" this brings us great hope! They are hoping that they can get him to open his eyes in the next few days. Please pray for several specific things: please pray that his blood pressure will stay down (its a bit elivated right now but is ok given the circumstance), please pray that dads fever will go down ( the temp could be a direct result of misinformation from the brain due to the swelling) because right now it is 102.2. Please pray for his left arm, this is swelling due to a clot in the clavical. Pray that the clot will fizzle away on its own. Pray for dads heart...that it will stay strong thru all of this stress and pain on his body. Pray for dads neck, as it is still broken and needs healing. Continue to pray that dads brain get healthy. Thank you for your continued prayer...we will continue to update you as we know more. God is good!

Morning message from mom...

Good Morning family and friends,

We have now passed the 1 week time period and my Jim is still with us. Praise God. In the beginning, they didn’t think he would make it through the night. God is good all the time.

There are no words to express our family’s thankfulness for all of you holding us up this week, in prayer and comfort. It has been a blanket of love that has kept us warm and together

I’d like to tell you that through all this support and prayer, I’ve stayed strong and encouraged, and for the most part, I have felt that. But, in my weakest, scariest moments He’s allowed me to see how my own strength will never be enough to sustain my life or my husbands. I am totally dependent on Him. I shake at the thought of what is ahead. I want to be the strong wife and mom, just like the women in pioneer days who toiled day and night through rough terrain, horrible weather, attacks and setbacks…..but, during these times, I am not. I am a pile of jelly. But God…..

Although I would never wish this experience on anyone…I will always treasure the path we’ve walked with all of you by our side. It has been a sweet, sweet time in so many ways….like a glimpse of heaven. But keeping it real, it’s also like walking through the fires of hell. I watch my kids faces each time the phone rings in this ICU waiting room and see the strain. But when things are calm and the numbers our good, the laughter, warmth and common shared stories are rich with God’s grace and a little of what heaven must be like.

Some of you know I dabble in writing. I’ve been encouraged to write because God has seen fit to give me constant writing material. Pray I will be sensitive to God’s guidance in using this experience to share his grace and love with others. I’ve had the awesome privilege of having my oldest friend, Merrie with me from Florida. She goes home today. My grandkids, including Tyler from Arizona is with me, My sister Becky, from Albuquerque arrived last night….and not the least, all my immediate family.

Ok, here are a few prayer requests that are on my heart: That we have a good cat scan result today. That numbers will stay steady. That I will see his eyes soon. Also, please pray for Hansen Fitness and Dale Hansen, my place of employment. He has been ever so kind and understanding about the past few weeks and my absence, as well as some of my family who work for him. May God bless his business.

Take care, keep praying and writing …we love you all.

Sue

quick morning update...1/27/2007

I have to apologize for not getting an update to you last night. When we do not get updates here, I forget to update you all on this. Mom went in early to see dad. They said he had a good night. His numbers stayed low and stable. They did a CT scan this morning and we will not get any results until later this afternoon. I will definatly give you an update when that comes back. They are trying to wien dad back off of some of the medication. If the CT scan comes back well, then they will wien him off of the sedation meds. Mom had a good night sleep. Her sister Becky came in from New Mexico last night as well as her grandson, Tyler from Arizona. I will let you know as I know more!

-A

The story as we know it...

On Friday morning (Jan. 19th) around 10:50am, i recieved a call from my brother Joe telling me that he needed me at the house. I asked him what for and he told me that dad had hurt himself somehow...he had a black eye, his nose was bleeding and was "a little beat up". I immediatly got into my car and started heading that way. I called Joe back and asked him for more details and he told me that he was having a hard time getting dad up. I told him to call the EMS and he said that he thought Jason had already done that and he was on his way. When i pulled up, i saw the EMS was already there. I walked in and i saw Jason, Anna, Joe and several EMS people along with dad sitting on a gurney. They imediately took dad out in the EMS...not knowing what was wrong...just that something really wasnt right. We followed the EMS to parkview ER and had to go wait. Mom met us there as she flew across town to get there. We had to wait a long time (it seemed like days!) before we were told what was going on. The chaplain kept coming out to "brief"us...but thats all it was, a "brief". Finally, the ER doctor called the family together and told us the news...dad has a broken neck and he is bleeding in and on his brain on both sides....this is very serious. "Its a bad deal" the ER doc kept on saying, but we had to wait until the surgeon would come in and take a look at the CT scan before we could find out for certian what was wrong. Dr. Young finally came in and said that he had looked at dad and his scan. Dr. Young was very "matter of fact" with us which was good. We needed that! He told us very similar things to what the ER doctor told us. He said that dad had broke his neck, C2 to be exact. He also said that he was bleeding in several areas in his brain. He needed brain surgury immediatly. On a scale of one to ten...with ten being the worst...dad was a "plus 10". Dad went into surgury and was there for 3.5 hours or so...he came out of surgury fine but we found out the damage was worse than they had thought. They had to remove some of the damaged area and he would be on life support. We were told that the next 3-10 days are life and death...or very critical. What we think what happend is something as follows: Dad was sleeping down in the basement which is a normal thing. Between 8:30am and 10:30am, he tried going upstairs. This info is a little sketchy because we werent there, but based on some of the info that we have seen, we think that he tripped on the stair going up and fell...hitting his right eye on the stereo and then hitting face first on the ground. This created the damage that we are aware of. We spoke with the cardiologist today and found out that dad has also had a heart attack with in the last eight days, but they have not figured out exactly when. There is a thought that this might have caused the fall be we are uncertain. Dad is in stable but "second to second" condition. If and when dad comes out of the "coma" state, there will likely be many months of therapy that needs to be done, plus until the brain issues are resolved, they can not even think about looking at his broken neck. To sum it all up...dad is in very bad condition. We thank you all for all of your prayers and support and all of the food and gifts. Your love for my dad and our family is amazing and we are extremely grateful. We will continue to update you as we know more. Please continue to pray!! Pray for dad (jim) for healing. Pray for mom (sue) that she can continue to be strong. We do know that we most likely havent seen the worst yet. This is when we need your prayers the most. Please feel free to enter your thoughts on this blogspot as we will update you as we know more. We are very thankful for the love you all have shown.