December 29, 2007

Hello All:

Thanks be to God! John is doing so well! He still has weakness in his right side but his left gets stronger every day. Crossing his legs by himself and can press a 2lb. weight in his hand several times in a row. He counts to 10, and sometimes beyond, and says his abc's everyday! Still a little trouble remembering everybody's name but eventually gets it down. Sometimes remembers why he is in the hospital and sometimes not. It still takes him a long time to wake up and as of yet has not achieved 100% wakefulness. He speaks a few complete sentences a day and has begun to ask some questions. As you know his trach is out and he has no oxygen, just breathing the same as anybody else. He eats pudding and some baby foods but has not been cleared to have the feed tube removed as sometimes he takes to long to swallow. We look for him to be moved to a new rehab center sometime in early January. We are so excited about this because at the new rehab he will be working with therapist for 6 hours a day! We cannot express our gratitude enough to God Almighty and to all of you for your prayers. Thank you, Thank you! May the Lord Bless and Keep you. May His Name be praised above all others and may the Holy Souls rest in peace.

We lift Brandy's mom up to the Lord and ask you to also.

Great News

The trach is out!!!! This is such a significant event because when we first made the decision to move forward with Dad's care, we made the decision to have the trach and the peg (feeding tube) inserted. We always viewed these procedures as temporary...one of the nurses at Riverside suggested that we look at them like crutches. Things that are needed to aid in Dad's recovery. We remained hopeful that one day, the crutches would no longer be needed. We're now one crutch down, and one left to go.

Count with Me

Heather visited Dad the other night and he was alert and very responsive throughout the visit. The nurses were all thrilled with his progress! It was a great visit. I talked about what has been going on and was anxious to know what he remembered. He told me that, "I keep remembering that night." He knows what happened and remembers the night of the aneurism, but doesn't have any recollection of his days at Riverside. He still has his memories and knows who we all are. When I asked him if he could count to ten, he said, "yeah." I laughed and said, then, do it! I helped get him started and he was able to count one to ten with ease. He seems to know what he wants to say, but just has some difficulty getting the words out. Hopefully, this will all come with time. He's frustrated, but doing very well.

God is certainly hearing our prayers.

Getting in Trouble with the Nurses

On Saturday morning, Jason walked down the hall to visit John and quickly noticed that he was sitting by the nurses station. Turns out that he was "in trouble" for pulling at the feeding tube and heart rate monitor. They were keeping him up there to keep an eye on him. Jason said, "Dad, this reminds me of when I used to sit next to the teacher's desk." And, Dad nodded his head and laughed. He was very responsive to Jason, answering his questions with responses like "yea or no." When Jason said good bye and turned to leave, John said to him, "Tell little Jason that I love him." Jason, stunned, turned around and said, "Dad, how long have you been able to talk like that?!?" To which, Dad just laughed.

Happy 58th Birthday!

Yesterday was John's 58th birthday and ironically, it seems that he gave us more in gifts than we gave him. He did not need the trach mask all day. They capped off the trach mask, which means that he was breathing on his own for the entire day. When Heather walked into the room and asked how he was, he said, "Pretty good." What joy to hear his voice after all of these weeks! He had visitors all day, which kept his spirits up. He seemed to enjoy the flowers, balloons and well wishes on his birthday. He's responding very well and moving more frequently. He was able to scratch his head and nose own his own. If he keeps this up, it won't be long until the trach is completely removed.

Thanks to Sandra & Don Dages for the pretty flowers, Judy & Bill for the balloons and to everyone else for your thoughts, prayers, concern, help and support. We all firmly believe that we are witnessing miracles in his recovery.

Sunday, Dec. 9

Dear All,

Yesterday John breathed through his trach mask for 16 hours and the respiratory therapist for today was going to see if he could go 24 hours. We praise the Name of the Lord! On Friday, when Martha apologized to John for patting his head and bugging him, he said "It's ok". Then this morning when the respiratory therapist asked him to say "hello", he replied, "No". John has made a few other responses such as "Yeah", and "Ok". We are just so thankful and excited. He continues to move around and squeeze our hands when asked. He nods his head yes and no most of the time instead of trying to speak. He was pleased to hear that O.S.U. is heading to New Orleans. We give all the glory of all good things unto God! Again, we cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers and thoughtfulness and all the offers of help. May God bless you!

Thursday, December 6

Family and Friends,

John is still doing very well weening from the ventilator (Thanks be to God!). His respiratory therapist say that maybe, just maybe, he might be completely weened after this weekend or early next week. We are praying to the Lord for this. Also, John has been diagnosed as having pink eye in both of his eyes and although this is not a big complication, it causes him much irritation. We ask the Lord that this discomfort be quickly removed from John. Most of the time John is able to swallow completely but just when they had cleared him for pleasure foods, ( favorite foods of his that can be pureed) they found a little tint of blue in his trach so they nixed the pleasure foods until he can be assessed again. Thank you, Almighty Father, for all the blessings that You bestow upon us. May Your Heavenly Kingdom always reign in our hearts and may the holy souls rest in peace.

Blessed be God Forever

Dearest All,

John is now being completely taken off the ventilator for a few hours a day and only has a little mask that sits over his tracheotomy that delivers oxygen if he needs it. This is called a trach mask. He used a trach mask for 3 hours yesterday and for 7 hours today. Because he is being weened from the ventilator he is almost always tired. However, we are able to spend quality time with him each day and get several smiles and yes and no head nods. He has been given a voice valve for his trach mask but hasn't learned to use it yet. We are so anxious to hear his voice again. Our hope is in the Lord. When we first began this journey on Nov. 5, we were told by a nurse who had 19 yrs. experience that we could pray all we wanted but that no vasospasms was not realistic. We just wanted to pass that on to all of you who were praying specifically that John suffer no vasospasms that through the merits of Jesus Christ our savior and the power of your prayers, John suffered no vasospasms. As most of you know we are now in Advent, a season of miracles (thank you Aunt Georgie). We lift all of you up to Almighty God. The King is coming, may you each receive many blessings as we await His glorious Nativity.

Thank you Rocco E., Charles Sr. and Jr., Billy M.