Thursday

Expectancy to see Dad walking again leads to celebration, even when he walks only 286 feet. Expectation to walk two miles would allow someone to be disappointed with a fraction of a mile. Much like our normally inflated, selfish expectations of God and our spouses and friends and our circumstances. But oh to celebrate instead of being disappointed. To approach each relationship and circumstance with selflessness and expectancy. Expectant of what might happen in the next session. On the next date. As a result of the next resolved argument. When the next difficulty comes.

286 feet matter a lot more when there’s expectancy rather than expectation.

That’s how far Dad walked with his walker Monday afternoon. As Caleb declared that evening, “That’s a record, Pop!!!” And it was.

Dad only had one PT session yesterday (Tuesday). Caleb and Dad and I were picked up at 12:30 by the wheelchair van and taken to a Neurology appointment for Dad’s neck. Caleb really enjoyed the van ride, especially when it stopped, and he got to ride on the wheelchair ramp with Pop. When we got delivered back to Dad’s facility, the driver even let Caleb control the ramp with the push-buttons. Pretty cool.

The news delivered by neurology was not exactly what Dad was wanting to hear. One more month in the neck collar. Erik told me why last night. Dad’s records were sent to Erik’s clinic, and he got to look at the CT of Dad’s neck from when Dad was at University. Not good. Pretty much fractured the column in his neck. Like “why wasn’t Dad in a coma or battling paralysis” kind of fracture. For real. Erik wasn’t surprised they said one more month. I saw the XRay yesterday, and it made a lot of sense.

Speaking of XRays, they wanted him to do more of his neck while we were there, too. They will compare them with the ones later when he comes back for the follow-up.

We got back to his facility, and we found out they are expecting to discharge Dad Monday. We were a bit disappointed to hear that. See what expectation does to you. But, we are working on either changing that or making an alternate plan. We are working hard on getting Mom transferred to Orlando. Dad would obviously transfer, as well. We’ll see what the timing of all that is.

Speaking of Mom, she had a really busy day Tuesday. They used a lifting mechanism to safely lift her out of bed and into a special, reclining wheelchair. They wheeled her down to the PT room to enjoy the view and do some exercises. They asked her to do some leg kicks while sitting in the wheelchair. SHE DID TWO SETS OF FIVE!!! The therapists said she did really well. She started sweating a lot, and the nurse asked them to return her to bed. Mom didn’t want to, but she didn’t have much choice. She can’t put up a fight right yet. She doesn’t like to sweat anyway.

She is wearing the Passy Muir Valve full-time now. It partially redirects the air back up through her vocal cords, helping her to get ready to do that all the time. They put the order in for speech therapy, too. I will let you know how that goes. She still hasn’t “said” anything to us. She has been mouthing things, but not “saying” stuff.

She was super tired last night, asleep when we stopped by.

This morning, we got there early enough to see both her ortho doctor and her internal medicine doctor there at the hospital. The ortho doctor told Caleb and me that they would take off her arm cast today. He said she would wear a splint for a little while. The internal med doctor said she is getting better and better, small progressions, but better nonetheless. He is hopeful and wants neurology to give us an idea of the timeline for putting Mom’s skull piece back on her head. He agreed that she would transfer much more safely with it on than without it on. We will let you know.

The infectious disease doctor came by, too. He told me that Mom has an infection in her blood, her urine, and the stuff she is coughing up. Not cool. He did say, though, it is not MRSA. It is something like it, but not as bad – coagulate negative staph. Still sounds negative to me. I’d like to beat it with a staff, and whatever germ caused it. He assured me that the two drugs they are using to treat it should be effective.

The wound care specialist informed me that Mom’s bedsore on her head is getting better. They are not sure hair will grow there ever again. It is about 3 inches by 3 inches on the lower left backside of her head. I am thankful it is getting better. I would rather better with no hair than out-of-control infection.

The news on the bedsore on her bottom is not good. It is deep enough now to expose the bone. It has been excavated (not something you want done on your body, unless you are in Israel), and the wound care specialist began a vacuum treatment on it this morning. Supposed to be the utmost of care – the best thing they can do. She described the bedsore as stage 4. I was hoping that was 4 out of 444. It wasn’t. 4 out of 4. “Very serious,” she stated. Please pray that the vacuum treatment will promote rapid healing. She believes it will. We have been very impressed with the wound care specialist. She has taken great care of Mom.

Please pray for the technicians to be faithful to turn Mom at least every two hours as they have been instructed to. The wound care specialist does not believe they have been. Erik and I do not believe so, either. We have all called it to the staff’s attention. Please pray for the techs and nurses to make it a priority.

We have connected the case worker from Mom’s hospital with the brain center in Orlando, as well as with a MedFlight group. We may not go with that group, because a friend may have another group willing to help us. We are looking into it. It’s great that the case workers are in dialogue, though. It is the next step. Pray for them to have wisdom as they review all the files. Mom’s chart is now very large, so it will take some time for them to give us their answer. We are praying for favor for sure!

Mom and Dad both now have 7 inch digital frames in their rooms. We loaded 71 images of all eight grandkids and our families for them to enjoy five seconds at a time. They both seem to really appreciate it. It is fun to watch them scroll through. Lots of memories.

Caleb and I enjoyed the baseball game last night. The Zephyrs lost 9 to 7 to the Tacoma Rainiers. I am figuring they are from Washington state, or from some place here in Louisiana on the bayou that rains a lot. One of those. Great game, though. Caleb even got to meet Boudreaux, the Zephyrs mascot. And, the catcher threw him a ball coming back into the dugout at the end of a half-inning. He was super excited!

You can view two pictures of Caleb at the game along with several pictures of Dad in therapy on my blog. Click here to see them.

Thanks for your continued prayers and letters and facebook messages and twitters and emails and so much more. We really, really appreciate your love and support.

I will post at you later.
-jason