Reflecting on God's Goodness...

so this morning i was laying in bed thinking back over all of the things God has done through this process. i thought that it would be good to remind everyone, so hopefully you will be encouraged. i am sure that i missed some things, but here's a start:

1) didn't know if dad would make it out of surgery --- he did
2) mom really wanted to see dad's blue eyes again --- she did
3) dad got some weird infection on his hand which the doctors said could be as fatal as the brain injury --- it just "went away"
4) there was a constant fear of high ICP numbers --- it subsided
5) he had a fever for an unknown reason -- went away
6) dad's blood pressure would not be controlled without IV meds --- became completely under control with other meds
7) after making improvement, doctor says "can't do the trach, we have no options" --- Dr. Culp was able to do the trach without any problem
8) we were told that dad was not a candidate to go to the Select Hospital --- out of the blue, they decided that he was a candidate
9) dad had to share a room once he got there with a man that was hard of hearing (his tv was on full volume all the time) --- dad got to be moved to a private room


Well, this is a decent list of problems that have been answered. I am sure that some have been left out. Praise God that he answers prayer. I am encouraged and as this process continues, i am reminded to continue to present my requests to Him because He will answer.

Laughed at a Joke

Rehab went well today. Dad was put in this machine type thing so that he can stand and it helps him walk, but more right now to gain strength and balance. He sat on the edge of the PT table to learn to balance for quite awhile and sat and in chair for 1.5 hrs. He tolerated everything well. When put back to bed, he fell right to asleep, I am sure he was exhausted.

Although Dad cannot speak, Joey and Andy told a joke and Dad was laughing at it, silently. Dad gave Anna a big smile and just seemed to be in a better mood about the day. He still has those moments of staring around, and he hasn't responded to anything the doctor ask of him. Please continue to pray for his ability to understand, recognize, and speak through this PT process so that he can move on to the Rehab center at the hospital. He still needs to respond to commands. We are thankful for every little thing that he has done.

Kelli

Good Day!!

Today the Physical Therapist did an assessment on Dad to make his therapy plan. The therapist found dad to be very alert and they feel positive about his treatment. As part of the assessment they had Dad stand.... yes I said STAND! He stood on his own with a person on each side. They said that the left leg is very strong and the right (which was always his bad side) was weaker. Dad smiled at Mom today and lately puckers up for a kiss here or there.

They are putting Dad on a big flat surface that moves him around so that he can get used to motion again, and will begin other PT options as the days come. We are all thrilled and give thanks for his improvement just in one days time.

Kelli

Moving Day

Today Dad moved to the Select Care Facility in St. Joseph Hospital. His new room number is 815. He is on the 8th floor and visiting hours are from 8am to 8pm. We are thankful that he is no longer considered a ICU patient.

The transition went smooth, however it is a big change for all. Dad now shares a room with another patient but is in the bed closest to the door. They have ordered the special bed he had at Parkview that rotates, we are looking forward to him getting that. He will start physical therapy this week for 3 hours a day. This is the good part of the move as the PT is more focused and will help dad to get to the next level.

We believe in miracles, with God all things are possible. Everyday is a new day.

Kelli

Sunday Evening

Again, Dad was sitting up in his bed and awake much of the day. He did not respond much to any one person other then Mom. We brought a DVD that was made on his 63th birthday which had all of the kids, grandkids as well as trips him and mom took together. We played it a couple of times of which Dad would sleep and watch. We would wake him and say "Dad did you see...." and he would open his eyes. I am sure he would say he was watching it all along if he could.

Mom and Kelli went to check out Dads new home at the Select Care Speciality Center inside St. Joseph hospital. There is going to be great changes taking place with this move. Please pray for all of us to have patience, strength and courage to take this next step. Where as Dad had 1 nurse for 2 people, it will now move to 1 nurse for 4 people. There is a rehabilitation area of which Dad will be sent to each day, so here please pray for Dad to have paitence, strength, courage and the will to step it up to the next level. Dad needs to do well enough here to be sent on to the rehabilitation center back at the hospital.

Kelli

Sunday Morning

Dad has had a busy week. Once the halo was on this gave room for new things. Everyday his bed is tilted to a sitting position so that he can now look around the room. however dad has been exhausted from the surgery and just having the halo itself so he sleeps most of the time.

On Friday, dad was moved to a chair for 4 hours. Joey brought Blaze to see dad during this time. Blaze was so excited to see dad that he was literally grinning from ear to ear. It's funny to see a dog smile. Blaze licked dads face but at this time there was no reaction from dad. We will continue to try.

Saturday, Dad was awake for about 4 hours. He was having one of his days where he just looked around but really didn't look at anyone that was in the room. He was in an upright position in his bed for about 4 hours as well. He seemed to be watching TV of which I bored him with What Not to Wear like old times. Andy took a movie up last night and watched with Dad as he snoozed in and out.

Dads vitals are all normal, he has been breathing on his own for 3 days now. They removed the ventilator from his room on Friday night. We are all thankful and praise god for this.

Please continue to keep dad in your prayers. Specifically that he will wake up and have knowledge and mobility to move on to rehabilitation. We all know that there is a long road ahead and are ready to take that next step of the journey with dad for recovery.

Rumor has it that he will be moving to a new facility on Monday. We will keep you posted.

Kelli

baby steps...

we are making baby steps forward towards recovery. since the halo has been put on, the doctor has given the go ahead to be a little more aggressive in rehab/therapy work. this morning when i showed up at the icu, dad was positioned about 1/3 upright in his bed. the goal was to continue to move him towards moving around. this afternoon, around 1 o'clock, the therapist and nurses set dad up on the edge of the bed and had his legs hang over the side on a stool. they were steadying him of course, but nonetheless, this is progress. i'm sure dad liked the view of the room instead of staring at the ceiling like he has for the last 30 days.

as far as we know, we will still be in the icu until monday. after monday, the plan is to move to a specialty hospital for additional aggressive "pre-rehab". once dad is fully able to participate in the rehab, they will increase the amount of time that he gets treated. please pray for patience on dad's part as he starts this process. i have been thinking about the fact that as he continues to become more aware of what is going on, he will likely become frustrated with the slow process (at least i would if it was me). pray that we continue to make steps (even little ones) forward. thanks for you love and support. we will update more as things progress...

surgery complete....

Dads surgery is done. Dr Young said that it went well. Nothing to worry about. We are waiting to go back and see him now. They are going to try to sit him up tomorrow. We will update you more later.

time for the halo...

tomorrow at 12:30, dad will go to surgery to have his fractured neck fixed. they will be putting a halo on him (a device that keeps your neck from moving that gets screwed into your skull).

there have been little improvements each day and we are thankful for them. we all want things to move faster, faster, faster, but we are often reminded that this process is long and slow. we consider ourselves blessed and fortunate to be as far along as we are.

as dad is being weened off the ventilator and his neck is being set by the halo, he will soon no longer be a candidate for the ICU. we will likely be moving to somewhere else soon, so stay tuned.
on another note, there are several families that haven't been as fortunate as we have in this process. please pray for comfort for the other icu families and that we can help them as they go through this hard time. thanks as always for your prayers and encouragement.

not much to tell you today....

I thought i would give you a brief update since one hasnt been given in a few days. Not a whole lot has changed. Dad's vitals are still doing well. They have continued to ween him off of the vent machine. They went for several hours with out the vent on last night...this is a great thing. This means that dad is doing well at breathing on his own for a bit and building those muscles that do this. He still is not that highly responsive. We might get few seconds here and there that we think that he is "with us" but nothing for long periods. The doctor wants to see dad being responsive for 4 hour periods of time. Sometimes it feels as if we are sooo far from seeing this, but i have seen God do miraclous things so far....I know that He could bring dad out of this comma at any time. Please continue to pray that dad will come out of comma quickly. Please also continue to give thanks for all of the things that have already transpired. On a side note...it seems as if it is a really hard day for some folks here in the ICU. Please pray that God will wrap his arms around them and comfort them. Pray that His presence will be made known. Will update you later....

friday update..

well, as you know, the trach was put in successfully last night. they have already started weening dad of the vent. they are guessing that he could be off of it in a few days. in case you didn't know, the trach is just another airway to connect the ventilator to; instead of connecting it to the tube that was in his mouth, they now hook it to a small tube that is in his neck.

it looks pretty likely that they will be putting the halo on dad's head next week to fix his broken neck. once this is done, we will be able to move dad around, try to have him sit up, etc.

please pray for the following: first and foremost that dad will start "moving with purpose" consistently. it is important that he is able to participate in the rehabilitation process, and until he is more responsive, he cannot. second, please pray that as time moves on, God grants us wisdom as we have to make constant decisions.

thanks again for lifting us up in prayer. we have been blessed with the world's best support group.

Waiting for the doc...

We don't have much new to post this morning. I was trying to wait to post until the doctor came in, but he has not been in yet. They dropped the vent machine from 10 to 6. This means that dad is doing a lot of the breathing on his own. They are trying to ween him off of the vent machine. I spent a little time with dad this morning and his eyes are wide open. I don't think he is "always" there....but will look as if he recognizes us for moments. We will take the moments! I told him that his strength was still good in his arm but that i could beat him in arm wrestling now....he disagreed. As i was holding his hand in the air, he pushed my hand down to the bed! Its still dad alright. He still telling me that he will win! I'm OK with that!

Thanks for the continued comments on this blog. We look forward everyday to the support we get from all of you. You all have been such a blessing to us! Thanks again for your friendship and your care. Mom or Jason will update you once the doctors come in.

One last thing, if you scroll down to the middle of all of the posts, you will find one that says "Notes for dad.." , if you haven't had a chance to write dad a note, and want to...this is a great chance to do so. As dad starts to come to more, we will begin to read these to him and hope to give him some encouragement. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

"Couldn't have gone any better..."

"Couldn't have gone any better..." is what Dr. Culp told us. Dad went in at 8:15 and Dr. Culp came out to talk to us at 9:15. ...Dad is now without the tube in his mouth and it is in the trach only. PRAISE GOD! Thank you for your continued prayers!!! They are supposed to call us back here in a bit to see him. We will update you tomorrow as to how dad responds to this new way of breathing.

quick update...

Dad has not gone into surgery yet....there has been a delay due to waiting for a room. We hope that he will be going into surgery in the next 30 mins or so. Its 7:45 right now...will update you as soon as we know more.

I like dads new hair cut...

I know that we said that there was not going to be a new post but i thought i would let you know that dad got a new hair cut! Tom the nurse decided (with the help of mom) that dad didn't look good with a mullet, so Tom got out the clippers and cut his hair; the problem is that the clippers that the hospital use do not have guards. This being said...dad is bald! It looks good though!!

Just a reminder that today is the big day...the day that dad gets his trach. This is supposed to happen at 6pm and last an hour or so. We will likely not have an update until later in the evening. Please pray for Dr. Culp and his team as they do the surgery. Pray that God will give the doctors steady hands and the surgery will go well.

Please also continue to pray for endurance. This has been and will be a very long journey. It has been pretty wearing at times and patience can run a little thin...

Praise God that dad has been more active and moving more each day. Earlier we saw some movement out of his right side. There hasn't been much until now. He is also moving fingers more instead of just his hand. I look forward to the day that he really knows that we are in the room!

Thanks again for your continued thoughts and prayers. We will update you as soon as the surgery is over....

update from the great white north...

things are much the same today in the icu. the doctor said that we are basically in a waiting period until thursday when the trach will be done. dr. young agreed that the trach could be done as long as dad's neck isn't moved. all of dad's vitals are good and he is occasionally awake. the tube seems to be really aggravating dad, causing him to gag and cough quite a bit.

we do not expect to have any news to update you with until after thursday 6:00 p.m. when the trach is done, so don't be concerned if you do not see anything before then. thanks for your continued prayers. stay warm :)

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...