Patchesnposies

Thank you, EVERYONE. It means the world to me that there are caring souls out there willing to listen to me and to pray for my family. Here is the latest news:

Brad met with Mike's regular cardiologist, the PICU doctor and the neurologist within the last hour. There were indications on the CT scan that Mike may have had some small strokes during Friday's surgery. He has weakness on his right side. Brad says he is seeing more responsiveness from Mike in the last two hours than he did over the past two days. He is moving his left arm and leg and opening his eyes more.
I had Brad hold the phone up to his ear so I could speak to him (twice) and both times he opened his eyes and looked around as if trying to find me. They will be doing an EEG and an MRI in the next day or so, to gather more information.
Please, please my dear friends, pray for my boy.

Cheesehead

Deb, continued prayers for Mike and your family will be said. Thank you for the updates, please continue to post them when your time allows. ((((HUGS))))

Jan

klaws

My heart goes out to you Deb. Mike will be continuously in my prayers. I wish there was something I could do to help you. If there is, please let me know. {{{HUGS}}}

tesspug

DH went to the post office today to mail my great niece's birthday present and the mug rug. He was back rather quickly. He said he would try again when it wasn't Columbus Day. We retired folk tend to forget about these holidays.

Patchesnposies

FINALLY! Some GOOD NEWS!

Here is the latest news from my DH regarding Mike:
It has been a rough couple of days, so I will summarise it all for you.


After his surgery Friday evening, Michael was not "coming out" of anesthesia. He has remained unresponsive for three days. We have had four neurologists examine him. His core, breathing and eyes were responsive, but his motor skills were impaired with little reaction on the right side. Monday morning they did a CAT scan, and found evidence of some brain damage.

His progress has been slow. But Monday night/Tuesday morning, the night nurse reported Michael being responsive and answering questions with head nods. Later Tuesday morning, Michael started thrashing around. They were afraid of seizures, so he got a second CAT scan Tuesday morning. The second CAT scan was about the same as the previous.

Michael remained unresponsive through the late morning, and has been monitored with an EEG to look for seizures and brain function. As the day has progressed, Michael has improved. He is able to answer questions with eye-blinks. By noon, he was trying to spit out his "bite-block" and was rolling around. He now has bi-lateral motor control, and pushes pillows and other annoying things away from his feet. At 3 PM, he was able to answer the PICU doctor's questions with eye-blinks.

Good News: Mike is still in there. He is sick and weak, but still with us. It is hard to tell what damage is old and new. There also is some edema (swelling) in his brain, which may be reducing. He is getting Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and other things to help.

The day has been filled with dozens of specialists. Neurologists, two echocardiograms, EEG, and other tests.

By 3 PM, Michael was able to answer questions with eye blinks. Based on this, he will be getting a heart valve through his neck artery on Thursday. This is not without risk, but improved circulation will speed his recovery.

He is now going for another CAT scan at 5PM Tuesday to check on everything for his operation. The prognosis has improved.

We need to keep people praying for Michael.

I know how hard this whole thing on you. You are doing great. This is the first good news in a long time. I'll call soon.

Thank you to all of my QB friends who are praying and sending good thoughts to Mike. Thursday will be a big day for him. I sure don't want any more surprises.

I finished up my swap package for Nelco today. I will be mailing it out tomorrow. Praying this week ends better than it started!

Much love to all.

jaba

Awesome news!! Prayer chains do work in mysterious ways

ctyankee

Deb -- I'm so glad things are starting to look up. I'm still praying for your son, but I cannot imagine how any of you are coping with these setbacks. I hope everything goes well Thursday. I'm glad you got the chance to work on your mug rug; sewing is a great stress reliever, I find.

momoftana

I hope the trip across the Atlantic doesn't take a long time. Mailed the October mug rug yesterday. The pictures are just tiny teases. Hope you like it CarolinePaj. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the other tiny things, so if you can, post when you get it.

Patchesnposies

Dear Friends,


Maybe you think this is just way too many updates and too much information, but I figure you deserve to know your prayers are being answered! Please continue to pray. Mike's valve replacement (palliative at this point until they know how to approach correcting his heart as a whole) will happen on Thursday. The procedure will not be as invasive but still carries some risk.


Here is the note I got from Brad this morning. I am sharing it because I believe in the power of prayer and you all have been so faithful. Let's pray this young man home!

In times like these, it is easy to be over-emotional, over-spiritual, and over-the-the top. I will try not to be hyperbolic.

The last 16 hours have been nothing short of a ... well ... miracle.

Talking to the PICU doctor, I now understand what was going on Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning the room was full of neurologists and cardiologists. Given Michael's CAT scan, lack of responsiveness, and then involuntary moving around, people were concerned about having to give me "the talk". They all love the boy who had been with them for two weeks, but were afraid that too little of him was left to justify putting him through another procedure. Dr. Crow was afraid that this news would have to be delivered during her watch. All the joking and chatting was replaced by those little lying smiles. You know the ones, they are smiles from the nose down, but sad eyes from the nose up. Sudden the chaplain has large amounts of time to chat with me (more sad eyes.) Michael was out from Friday night to the 7:30 Tuesday morning shift change, with little other than a few anecdotal stories of eye blinks to base any hope.


Between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, everything changed. Michael came back with a vengeance. First, he worked his bite block out his mouth, then he bit his breathing tube. They thought it was a seizure, but I told them he hates intubation. They restrained him and taped the bite-block in. By2:00 PM he was weak, but responsive, answering "blink" questions. Suddenly the medical staff had a viable patient again. Fortunately, they had worked all weekend on planning Mike's next heart surgery, but his condition delayed the actual preparation. His recovery sparked a second flurry of specialists. The room filled again with neurologists, cardiologists, pulmonary experts, and about everly -ologist you can imagine. Each scheduling tests immediately for "their" patient. (For example, three different Drs. scheduled three different CAT scans which needed to be combined.) Suddenly, the joking resumed, Michael slowly recovered. He used his little thick tongue to worry out the bite-block again. They made him promise not to try to bite his breathing tube if they removed the bite-block. Michael blinked in affirmation.

Over the night, Michael has continued to move. He can lift legs and arms, but is too week to write. He is well enough to be VERY uncomfortable. The pulmonary nurse had to keep resetting his ventilation. Michael kept inhaling and exhaling beyond the machine. His swimming and active life has given him good volume now that the fluid was out. (This may have also masked early lung congestion symptoms.)

What happened? Probably brain edema. Mike is now on NSAIDS, analgesics, anti-seizure (precaution), and meds to reduce edema. He kicks everything off the bed which annoys him. The brain damage may be old, and seems to include speech and language processing, which we are aware of. HE IS VERY CRABBY.

Mike is very sick, but still with us. The pulmonary valve is passable, and the aortic valve can be replaced through the artery. This is still dangerous, but there are no real alternatives. This gives Michael time to heal and all of us time to plan life-long solutions.


I so love and appreciate each and every one of you that has taken the time to think of and pray for Mike. The offers of help and words of support and encouragement have meant the world to me. For the first time in weeks I slept without waking every hour. We still have a ways to go, but our boy is back and God willing he will just get better and better.


Thanks from the bottom of my heart,


Deb

nhnative

Thank God for the miracles and having everyone on here praying helped too. Sending more prayers for Mike's recovery and prayers for you and your family