I'm Behind on the Updating!

Many of you have asked for Dad updates.  I am sorry for not being as frequent with them as of late. 

Thankfully, he is not in such a critical state.  He is in a recuperating/recovering phase which is slow and a bit painful to watch (Well, it all is painful to watch...but this is a different kind of painful for the observer, I guess).  But he is making good progress, nonetheless.

They have him off of the respirator machine for 16 hours a day, with just supplemental oxygen.  He has been able to tolerate ice chips in the last few days and today they gave him some applesauce that he was also able to tolerate.

He is still getting dialysis 3 times a week. He is getting daily speech, occupational, and physical therapy.

He has been able to tolerate the speaking valve for a few hours each day (with a trachea, you can't speak unless you have a valve inserted).

He is (understandably) very confused, tired, and listless.  The term the staff use is "delusional," which I understand to be expected considering how sick he was and how much medicine he was (and still is) on.

Please pray for him to be encouraged and to be content within this challenging and frustrating situation.  Thank you for your support, prayers, and encouragement.

Dad's New Digs

Dad is doing fairly well this week at the acute care hospital.  He is awake some (though still quite sleepy) and is looking more and more like himself.

He is still getting dialysis, though it is now every other day.

They are also letting him try periods of time with just oxygen and no machine breathing for him.

They have started physical, occupational, and speech therapy as well.  He is very confused.  Though he knows his name, he does not know the year or month among other things.  I understand this to be very normal with someone who has been on so many medications and been so sedated for so long.

He is really wanting to try and get off of the bed a lot.  He has managed to pull loose his oxygen tube and his feeding tube.  Because of his confusion, you cannot simply tell him not to do such things.  Plus, even if he wasn't confused, he is not the type to necessarily abide by rules placed on him by others.  :)

Please pray for Dad to regain strength and for mental clarity.  Please pray for his oxygen needs and dialysis needs to continue to decrease.
Throughout this whole process, he has had trouble with white blood cell counts going up, which is often an indicator of infection.  They have had trouble diagnosing/locating the source of this.  They are still trying to get the white cell counts to go down.  Please pray that they will.

Truly, Dad has had astonishing improvements. They are nothing short of miraculous.  I am so thankful for prayers of friends and strangers alike.  We see your prayers coming to life, literally.  Oftentimes, prayers are not necessarily answered in the ways we would like them to be.  And that is ok. But, at this point in Dad's journey, we are blessed to see specific prayers answered.  Words fail me to adequately express this.

Words also fail me to express my gratefulness to everyone. For prayers, meals, childcare, texts, emails, hugs, hospital visits, words of concern, silent support.  For it all. Thank you so very much.  Please keep praying.

Blessed beyond measure,
Zoe