OFF THE VENTILATOR

Finally....praise God....Ron is off the ventilator. It was a long weekend waiting for it to happen....but it is finally out! Friday morning they had discovered that Ron's hemoglobin and hematocrit had dipped quite considerably. They did a CAT scan late Saturday night and Sunday morning around 5:30am ..they determined that Ron was bleeding internally. They had general surgeons in at 6am to speak with me and to look at the CAT scan and they advised us that the bleed was in between the muscle wall of his abdominal area. It was a large hemotoma ...apprx 8cm x 3cm. They did not feel that surgery was necessary at this point..especially with his condition. They plan to keep monitoring it for the next week. In the meantime...Dr. Smith ordered 2 more pints of blood ..in addition to the ones he had received on Friday and she also added fresh frozen plasma...this helps the blood to clot better. We suspect this was caused by the plasmapheresis that he received....his coagulants tend to get messed up when he gets this treatment....not quite sure why....Some of the doctors also think all the coughing he was doing due to the pneumonia may have attributed to it as well...something could have easily torn to cause the blood within the muscle and it started to leak...creating the hemotoma. Ron is very tender in that area and his doctor said it is going to be painful for a while. Last night they ran labs again and his hemoglobin and hematocrit creaped up a bit..which is good ...he has not lost anymore blood...so hopefully, it is clotting well and the hemotoma will eventually reabsorb back into his body naturally. A group of doctors came in to see him today and were pleased to see that he is moving in the right direction to improving. The antibiotics seem to be working and his fevers are slowly tapering down. He is not spiking as high a fever now at night. They are staying relatively low grade. They tested him this morning on his breathing parameters and he passed with flying colors. While I was doing his dressing change of his wound ...Dr. Smith came by and said he was doing well and that we could go ahead and remove the ventilator tube. He was happy to hear this ...he gave her a big smile and has been very alert. As soon as the tube was out ...he asked for his dad. He asked him to go and get him some Stuarts Lime soda and some Breyers Key Lime ice cream. All day yesterday he was telling me via the alphabet board that he wanted 7-Up or lemon lime soda and was frustrated that I could not give him anything. Pastor Daniel from our church, Palm Valley Church, paid us a wonderful visit today. Thank you Pastor Daniel....you are so awesome! We enjoyed the visit and enjoyed his prayers with Ron and myself. We are so grateful to our church family ...for their love and support through all of this. We look forward to getting home and being with everyone once again. We did not get a chance to make it to services before I had to bring Ron back to Tucson. So...right now ..Ron's parents are out on a mission looking for Stuart's Lemon Lime Soda and key lime pie ice cream. He is having an echo done right now and will have dialysis later today. The kidney doctor just came by and said with the hemoglobin being low...the internal bleeding and the blood transfusions that he has had to get ....the kidney is still a bit traumatized so it will take some time for it to recover again. They will continue dialysis every day for a few days and then give him a break here and there. Still no word as to the time frame they expect Ron to be here this time. My guess is that it is just day by day right now. They do plan on getting physical therapy in here ASAP to start working with him. His leg muscles are gone once again. You can see his bone along the front of his shins...it is so sad to see. He was really starting to come along with his walking. We are back to square one once again. I apologize for not returning any phone calls yesterday ...I was quite exhausted from all the news we received first thing in the a.m. and speaking with all the doctors early in the day. I did not get to bed until after 1am on Saturday because they did not take him down for his CAT scan until midnight ..I was up by 5:30am yesterday morning when the doctor came in to explain the bleeding to me....then at 6am the surgeons came in..so I was up the rest of the day....I finally started taking cat naps throughout the afternoon and turned my phone off for a while. It was just a lazy day Sunday from 1pm on. Thank you for the prayers....keep them coming. Ron has many more hurdles to still overcome. We are hopeful of the outcome. Praises to our Lord and blessings to you all!