Joye's Update 4/9/08

I have encouraging news today! Andrew can now feel sensation 1 inch lower than he could feel it yesterday, which is just above his nipple on the right side and just below his peck on the left side. We were all so excited about that today. Andrew "exercised" hard today. He breathed on C-Pap without any sedation or pain medication. This is much harder for him to do as he is unable to feel his lungs due to the paralysis; therefore, it is gives him the feeling that air is not filling his lungs (the feeling sort of like having the air knocked out of you). When he's sedated or with pain medication, he's not so aware that he cannot feel the air going into his lungs so it's much easier for him to breath. Breathing this way gave him a panicked feeling every now and then, so my job was to keep him focused on breathing by coaching him through every breath. He can breath pretty well, it's just hard to convince him of that since he can't feel it. I can't imagine how that must feel. We did this for 2 hours today and that pretty much wiped him out for the rest of the day. He wasn't able to get off the vent yet as it was determined that he's just not ready. He will continue on this therapy until his diaphram is ready and he's more confident that he is actually breathing. Doctors aren't sure how long that will take, but the sooner the better as the longer he's on the vent the harder it is to get off. With this HUGE task at hand, I'm hoping everyone will understand that there are going to be days that he won't be able to have visitors, and at the least there will be times during each day that he will be unable to be seen. He obviously can't be seen during the breathing therapy, and he will need rest after as this is the course he needs to follow to get well. Basically, the status of him being able to have visitors or not changes by the hour and by the doctor (he has 4 critical care doctors and please understand that he is still in critical care status). I know people are wanting to come visit, and I'm not trying to discourage that at all. In fact just the opposite; he has enjoyed seeing those that have come so much. I'm just worried that some of you are going to drive that long drive from Yuma and not be able to see him, which would have been the case today. I feel bad about this and don't exactly know how to handle this; I want everyone to see him who wants to, but not if it will hinder his recovery in the slightest (that is the number 1 priority). My hope is that he will get off the vent, get confident with his breathing and will be healthier to receive visitors at any time very soon. As I'm sitting here in his room writing this message, the nurses are having their shift change and doing their normal assessment on Andrew and they are very excited to find that he can feel about a centimeter lower from what they found earlier! I'm so hopeful by what it is happening. KEEP PRAYING, IT'S WORKING. God is awesome and He's showing me just how awesome right before my eyes. During the times that Andrew is taken off sedation for assessments and doctor visits, we are able to pray together and we do so faithfully. Thank you again for all of your thoughts, prayers and posts, I can't wait to read them to Andrew in the morning (he's sedated for the night now). I'm going to try and sleep as well before his next assessment . . . I'm very tired myself today as I feel like I was breathing every breath for him. Good Night and God bless. Joye