Post overdue.....

I am way overdue on getting a post out for the day. We are trying to get back into some normal life pattern (whatever that might look like) by going home some nights and sleeping. When we do that, we don't have the computers up here at the hospital and it makes it harder to get a post out. We are up here tonight and i have the computer with me so we will have you updated while here. If we get snowed in...then i will be up here giving you the normal updates!

Dad is slowly progressing. Today the therapist came in and worked on bending dads arms and legs. She was asking him to help her bend and he was. She would ask him to relax his arms and he would. It was evident that he was responding to her. Also, I had my kids up tonight and Kade came in and said " hey grandpa, its Kade...I love you"...and dad smiled. It was very evident that it was a smile and not any other movement! This is great progress.

The doctor also took a CT scan again. The CT scan showed that the shift has almost corrected itself. This means that the swelling is almost gone and there are no real signs of more bleeding.

They are also going to attempt to do the trach on dad on Thursday at 6pm. This is not confirmed with Dr. Young but is likely they will do it. Please keep this in your prayers. This can be a slightly risky task but thankfully they figured a way to get around moving dads neck!

This is all for now...i will try to give you some sort of update tomorrow afternoon. Thank you again for your continued prayers and support. If you haven't gotten a chance to yet...scroll down to the post "Notes for dad" and leave dad a note...encouraging him or letting him know how he has touched your life.

Until tomorrow...

-A

nothing really to update...

sorry for the lack of communication, but there hasn't been much to update today. all of dad's "numbers" are doing well. he hasn't been "awake" much today. the doctors are getting together tomorrow to decide on the plan for the week. when we hear what that is, we will update you. thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

A TENTATIVE PLAN AND HEARTFELT THANKS!

The pulmonary Dr. came by yesterday and said he will try to wean Jim off the ventilator. He backed off a little yesterday, but today he said he would leave it as is. The plan is to try to get him off next week. Jim has responded to a couple of commands but has slept most of today. It is so hard to be in the "waiting room". We want everything to speed up and get on with improving....but we have also learned a powerful lesson on how precious it is to have one more hour, one more minute....

I have never studied every breath and every muscle movement, as I have since Jim's fall. So many things I took for granted, so many moments I passed by as insignificant. His eye's move and my heart beats faster...his hand moves and I run for the nurse. Why do we think we will always have that. All the energy I've put into everyday chores that are now gone from my life and I could care less.

I know these are not "new" thoughts for anyone who has experienced a trauma, I have had a few of those in my life, also. We lost our son, Donnie, 4 years ago this past week. The loss was huge. But each tragedy or trauma, leaves its own mark and brings its own unique change forever. This is one I have never known or know how to walk. But I have an alter of God's faithfulness in past events to cling to and family and loved ones praying and being God's servants in our lives. How do people survive without this?

There is no way we will ever be able to express our thanks and love to all of you who have walked thru this with us. I am so humbled by it all. But I am going to try. Just know this, from all the Maley family, we are forever grateful for all the prayers, notes, cards, calls, visits, food, and many, many other signs of support and love.

Keep praying and we will keep you updated.

Sue

some slight encouragement..

when the doctor tells you things like "that movement is just reflexes" it becomes difficult to get excited over movements. that being said, dad has been more and more responsive each and every day. today, andy asked him to wiggle his toes.....and he did --- three different times on command. he also slowly looked at andy and pulled andy's hand towards his chest. we continue to pray that these movements are consistent and on command so the doctor feels that he is responsive enough to get him off the ventilator. more updates later...

waiting...

Just a quick note...we have no new news this morning. We are waiting on the pulmonologist to check dad out this morning/afternoon. We hope to have better answers and be able to update you later this afternoon.

-A

Thanks!

tonight was a sweet time of prayer. the elders of our church (Blackhawk) came in this evening at 5:30 and prayed with our family at dad's side. it was a precious time of lifting up our requests to the creator of the universe. we are so thankful for all of you and the genuine concern and care that you have shown our family. i spoke with mom after this and she said that she felt refreshed. it was nice to see her spirits up as today and yesterday seemed to be a little more tough than others.
we will continue to boldly approach our Father with reverence on our dad's behalf. thank you for joining us.

same story, hard to deal with....

we are in a really strange phase of this tragedy. as mentioned yesterday, dad needs to get off the ventilator, but they cannot do so because of his broken neck. the doctor told us this morning that even if dad by miracle wakes up today, his throat muscles need a week or two to be able to handle breathing and coughing on his own. we are told that the ventilator lasts 3-4 weeks tops until the body rejects the tube and infection becomes an issue. we are at 3 weeks tomorrow. the doctor says that we have nothing else to do.

so, while dad's numbers are as good as they have ever been, the clock is ticking. this is probably the most helpless we have felt in this entire process. we know that God is big, but frankly, this is hard.

while we are all in constant prayer, we are asking everyone to take some time at 5:30 p.m. EST this evening to approach God and ask for a miracle. our prayer is that dad wakes up enough to respond to commands, and is able to breath and cough on his own. reality of where we are is setting in with all of us, so today is a rough day. thanks again for approaching the Father on our and dad's behalf.

Catch 22...

We have a situation that needs specific prayer. We spoke to the doctor this morning and he told us that we have some things working against us. Dad needs to have a "trach" put in to assist with his breathing until he wakes up. This is because the tube for the ventilator cannot stay in too much longer without risk of other major complications. Here is the problem: because of the fact that he has broken his neck, they cannot do a "trach" because his neck would have to be hyperextended. So, basically, we need dad to wake up....enough for him to be able to cough and clear his lungs on his own. Please pray that he will wake up so that we can ween him off of the vent. The doctor has said that dad has already surprised him this far. We know that God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, so that is what we pray for. Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.

Updates from the desk of the ICU....

So, I really don't have anything to say, but i know that all of you wait for updates from us each morning and night. Mom just headed to bed and Joe and Kelli just headed over to the house to sleep. I am sitting here listening to a CD that i just made for dad. "Sade"...great music! The nurse said that we can play music in his room for him. "Just no hard rock-n-roll and defiantly no country!" ...that was what Tom the nurse told us.
Dad's numbers are staying stable for the most part. He has a slight fever tonight. His BP is stable. His pulse is a little high (120-125) but the cardiologist seems to think that is due to his brain swelling.
We will see the doctor again tomorrow morning. I will give you more as he gives us more. Continue to write to dad in the post marked "notes for dad".

-A

late morning update...

Sorry this is so late in the morning... ( i started this at 11:00 am...several distractions :) )
We spoke with Dr. Young this morning and he confirmed that the CT scan from yesterday was better. He also made the statement that we are not at "day 1" anymore. This was one of the most positive statements that he has made yet. I know that it sounds strange, but that is a positive thing to be away from "day 1" since we have been at "day 1" for a few weeks now.

We are waiting today on information from the cardiologist and the throat doctor. The cardiologist is going to look at dads heart and tell us why his pulse is so high (110) and if this is hurting him.The throat doctor is going to come up with a way to do the trachiosticpy (sp?) since they cant do the normal. To do it normally, they have to stretch his neck to get it in. Because his neck is broken, they can not do this, so they have to come up with an alternative method. This might bring about some difficulties. So we just wait.

Please take a look at the last post and take some time to jot dad a note of encouragement or let him know how he has impacted your life.

We appreciate your continued prayers and we will keep you posted.

As I was writing this, we had an update from the case manager of the ICU. She was giving us a snapshot of what was to come in the future if dad stays stable. They said that as soon as the stability comes, he will not stay in the ICU...but if he has the ventilator, they can not take him in rehab here at the hospital. That being the case, he would be moved to a facility in the St. Joe hospital that would give him the care until he wakes up and gets off of the vent. Once that happens, then he would be moved back to rehab at the hospital (parkview or Lutheran...our choice)..this could be a long process. I will update you more soon.

-A

Notes for dad...

I wanted to give some a chance to write dad. I figured that you could use the comment section to write dad an encouragement note or if you would like to leave him a note of how he may have touched your life, that would be great too...I would love to overwhelm him with this encouragement when his awakes and is able to listen or read! Please use this section to write to him only and not to us! Thanks for taking the time to do this!

-A

Roller coaster ride...

The neurologist came in this afternoon to see where dads progress might be. He stated that although we see dad's eyes, he is still in comma and that he is not responding right now to us. He told us to continue to talk to him but as of right now, he is pretty much in the same state he was in. He also made a statement that recovery time could be anywhere from a month to longer than a year. Basically, we are still one day at a time. They really don't want to give us answers as to what the future may hold, including the immediate future. We will just keep talking to him, and praying that he will come out of comma soon and have a swift recovery.

One last thing, the CT scan from earlier today was improved. His numbers are staying stable with out any Manittol or Dipravin. The nurse did say that today was dad's best day so far. Thats all for now...more tomorrow.....

-A

More Positive!

Last night the nurse continued to drop the sedation and mom was able to see dad open his eyes again for about 35 mins. I came in this morning to talk with the doctor and they want to take him off of his sedation meds all together if he will tolerate it. I got to see his eyes too this morning. He was blinking a little. He still didn't respond to commands from us or the doctor but this could take time. The doctor ordered a CT scan for this morning. Mom is VERY hopeful. Please continue to pray! The question was asked to the doctor" when can we expect to be hopeful and think positively about dad moving out of the critical state?" and his response was, "when you see him out of the ICU!"
After we get the results back from the CT scan, the doctor would like to see dad stable with his numbers being down for 48 hours. We are not sure what this next step is, just that whatever it will be will happen in 48 hours...or Wednesday morning (hopefully). Please continue to pray...with hope..that dad will be able to respond to commands soon (although dad has never been one to take commands :) ) we will try to have an update for you later this evening.

-A

something positive....

Last night, the nurse decreased the amount of dipravin (sp?) that dad was getting for a bit to see if he would respond at all. Mom was able to get a glimmer of hope. Dad opened his eyes just a flicker. It wasnt much or for long, but it was enough to give mom some more "wind beneath her wings". Once his ICP level and BP went up, they sedated him again. They are going to continue to lower his dipravin this weekend to see if we can get more of a response. His sedation level is at 40 right now. Please continue to pray for my father. Pray that he will begin to wake up. Pray that his levels will continue to stay level while waking him up. Pray that mom will find some rest and that she will have great patience during this time.

-A

saturday update 2......

I was made aware that i need to continue to update you even when things do not change. The last post that Jason gave is pretty much where we still are. We really appreciate your continued prayers and support. Thanks for following us thru this blog and earnestly praying. Jason or I will update you in the morning or later if there is any change.

saturday update...

there isn't much to report this morning. dad has been pretty much doing the same over the past two days. his icp numbers continue to hang around the 19-21 range and his temperature and blood pressure have occasional spikes up and down. we were reminded again today that the longer this goes on, the less favorable the outcome. while we want to say "staying the same is good", the reality is that we need to make some steps forward. please pray that dad's icp numbers steadily go down in the next couple of days. thanks again for all of your constant prayers and encouragement.

friday morning update...

"no significant change.." those were the words of dr. young. dad had a pretty stable night. his icp numbers are staying in the 19-21 range and his blood pressure has been pretty much under control. his temperature has been under control as well. the plastic surgeon did come by last night and said that his hand will heal up just fine and is nothing to be concerned about.

the plan. once again, the goal is to have a stable weekend with lower icp numbers. if this happens, we will do a CT scan on Monday. if there is improvement and numbers stay down, they will start backing off the sedation medication again and see how he responds. pray for continued stability, and pressure numbers to go down. thanks as always for your prayers and encouragement.

update from this morning...

In the past 1.5 hours, dads temp has gone back up to 98.5. This is good...but another issue has arisen. Dads ICP level is back up. They are reducing his Fentinol and giving him morphene instead. This could be the reason for the elivated ICP and blood pressure but unsure.The word "sepsis" was used in the conversation with the doctor this morning, but it was more of a "possibility" of the reason for the temp drop but not an absolute. The chances of sepsis being the reason for the temp drop is slim and more likely due to the medications that he is on. This is one of the reasons they are reducing some of the meds. This ride is such an emotional roller coaster! Please continue to pray, and write! We love all of you! More to come...

-A

more bad news.....

Met with Dr. Young this morning and although dads ICP's are hanging in there where they should be which is a good thing, we have a new problem. Dad's temp. is very low right now. It is around 95. They said this is most likely due to infection or "sepsis". This is very severe. They told us that this is just as severe as his ICP level. They are going to run several tests on him to find out where the infection is coming from. Please continue to lift dad up in your prayers. Pray that the doctors will find answers quickly and be able to get the infection under control. Pray for my moms nerves.

I will update you more later...

-A

short evening update...

Met with the Neurologist tonight. He showed us the CT scan. The body is such an amazing thing. It was really wild to see the "shift". The doctor really cant determine anything right now until the swelling comes down. He said that this could be another week. At least that is the hope. In the mean time, we just wait and hope that it doesnt increase anymore. More in the morning...