Tuesday

David's eye looked more in line today and he seemed to see better but it hurt all day so he had a little pain medication, and an ice pack on it.
His speech is affected so he got evaluated for speech therapy.
His walking is affected so he will go home with a walker and may get physical therapy.
(Don't get a brain injury!)
He also looks a bit depressed though he doesn't think he is. He is on a really high dose of his usual med Keppra and is also taking Vicodin for pain and Decadron which is a steroid to reduce the fluid buildup in his head. So considering all the stuff he's on and what he went through, I shouldn't worry.
This is our prayer list. Thank you so much for supporting us. We'd love it if you'd sign the guest book if you haven't yet.

Wrapping up

Dr Ross this morning told the nurses that David can go home Tuesday. I'm not sure if he will be quite ready, but he must be getting close.

David walked to the bathroom today. He wavered around so he needed to be accompanied. But at this point he is almost completely free of tubes, wires, lines, etc. He is really weak from the whole experience. Making the trip to the bathroom tired him out.

He is not in much pain any more. Today he didn't need any pain med till dinner time. And dinner for him was a cheeseburger so he's doing well with food.

He is still seeing double with his eyes being out of whack. But they looked better to me today. It's a good source of jokes--"you get twice as many visitors"; "better wear your eye patch so you know which bathroom door to go through"; "you get to watch two videos at a time". He loves laughing.

Thanks to all who signed the guest book below. I need to read them to David when he has a bit more stamina. He will be blessed so much. He is blessed.

Sunday post from David

In this photo David is writing the message that appears two posts below this one. He needed some suggestions with ideas but had his own words. He spelled 'thanks' as 'thanges' at first, then looked at me frowning and pointing at it so I told him to use a 'k' instead of a 'g'.

Sunday night status of David

Last night David got moved back to a regular room. (It's the same one he had in May and June.)
He was talking a little. His throat is hoarse but also his brain seemed a bit slow too. He ate a big regular dinner of fish and rice. I wasn't there and was shocked because it was 3 pm when he was given permission to swallow anything at all and the surgeon recommended jello and pudding, not even liquids, because he might be uncoordinated and let them slip down the wrong pipe.
He looks weak and fatigued but he laughs at jokes a lot and seems comfortable and patient. He still needs to be able to walk but was not yet interested.
I'm off soon to go see him and will post more later. Also I need to post about the bits and pieces of how this turned out as a diagnostic.

Thanks for your for prayers

Hi,
I am awage again!
Thanks for your praying!
David

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postscript from Dad:

The above is David's first posting, made from the CCU, after being awake again and recovering. It has a few typo's but it's precious.

Patient David

David spent most of the afternoon off the sedative, alert, and wanting the breathing tube out. His hands were restrained which was not his favorite but I asked him to be patient and he was.

They took out the breathing tube around 5:30, after several tries earlier where he didn't breathe well enough on his own. Please pray for him to do well on his own in his sleep.

He was able to speak, sort of. The last few days his brain was not letting him speak but I think now it is his throat mainly, as well as needing to recover from all the drugs and the brain pressure.

He did really well at being patient and I am very proud of him. He had to let me suction his mouth, he could answer me with nods of his head only, and he had to put up with all the restraints and discomfort. When he was a baby and could start feeding himself he would take food I fed him out and put it in again, himself. So I think today was challenging as he hasn't changed much in spirit.

We also need to pray he doesn't get pneumonia. He has gotten pretty messed up with losing his ability to swallow yesterday and with fluid drainage from the first surgery, so he got fluid in his lungs. They are checking him carefully but apparently pneumonia can hit fast.

His low level seizure activity seems to have gone away. When they took the grid out we could no longer see the problematic pattern on the EEG. They put on external electrodes which showed nothing; of course those are of course not as sensitive, but the neurologists think he is ok. And he seems like he is not having seizure distress, just weak and needing to heal up.

This is a good day--did I say that before? It was so good to see David improved so much this morning, and also a great moment when Dr Ross said to stop worrying! Thanks for being with us.

P.S. Sorry to be slow in updating. I held David's hand and read to him all afternoon till I was finally exhausted, then came home and ate with the kids and watched a movie.

Happy doctor

Dr Ross (surgeon) is happy and said I can stop worrying. (Yesterday he said I should worry.) He wants the breathing tube to come out now.

Relatively minor complications: they are starting antibiotics and are a bit concerned about his lungs and pneumonia; his gastric fluids look like he might have an ulcer.

Life is good. God is good.