Weekend warrior

HI everyone - I took a break yesterday from the blog. it was kind of a down day in that once again, he had all of these lung secretions, had to breath hard which brings his heart rate way up and of course the big thing is it prevents him from his trials of weaning from the vent.

The bright spot was that about 30 minutes after I got there around 10:30 am Rick shows up in the hospital room. I had no idea he was coming except that I had tried to call him and he never answered. The thought did pass my mind that maybe he is flying out here and that is why he is not calling me back.

Today is a much better day. It was reported that Dustin had a good night and had a good attitude with even a few smiles. Rick and I were picked up by our wonderful friend and Dustin's occupational therapist and went to church. We are really enjoying the messages from the pastor, the awesome music and all of the people. She then took us to her house again and fed us lunch.

She really helped us understand about some of Dustin's behaviors and attitudes as related to him brain injury. He had blood and spinal fluid in some of the ventricles of his brain but at the onset the doctor's didn't really mention it since it was draining and was most likely not going to be a longterm issue. They discussed much more about the spinal cord injury. Our friend explained that the brain is still healing and it may take up to 1-2 years for it to completely heal and that right now areas where there is weakness are firing away and causing some occasional weird things like odd conversations, foul mouth, and memory problems etc. Knowing that sure helps you to understand and makes it easier to know that this to shall pass. Knowledge really helps when going through some of these trials and it helps me to know how to pray.

One of our good friends from California had sent a DVD testimony of a youth pastor at the Vineyard church who had a C6 injury from diving into the ocean. It took 6-9 months and he was up there walking, talking and sharing his testimony as well as a short film from some of his rehab sessions. He decided that since he had to relearn to walk, etc that he would make the decision to "just have fun doing it all". Dustin needs to wrap his head around that because of those of you who know Dustin he is always clowning around, looking for some fun and then coming up with ideas for TV shows and movies. He likes to capture funny lines and situations. That is one of the reasons I try to keep the blog up so we can remember the up side down bed shakes, heated shampoo caps etc. Dustin can go places with stories from some of the incidents that actually are hilarious!

We plugged Dustin into the DVD testimony and left the room for him to listen to it. Often if you are there he is constantly doing attention getting behaviors so we thought it best to leave. He says he didn't watch it butr he had ear plugs in his ears and so we know he got some of it. It is very positive and hopeful and also is an awesome testimony of the part that God had in it for him. Through the situation, this guy realized that his identity was in what most of have our identity in -i.e. our work, our looks, our characteristics etc. When that is removed we realize that we need to have our identity in who God created us to be from the foundation of the earth because these others things change. Dustin's identity is not in his arms and legs but the spirit in him that god placed there. We all know he loves to write and has an eye for camera/film work. He can certainly do whatever he places his mind to do.

Please pray that he will begin a relationship with God and to seek Him for all that He has planned for him. If you know God that will be huge cause God is a BIG God! Also continued strength in his respiratory system and that every breath comes from the express permission of God and is full, rich, and life giving. Pray that Dustin will begin to grab hold of life again, looking at each opportunity he has to go through as a challenge for fun, for accomplishment and for a great testimony to help others.

Dustin is sitting up today, breathing well and actually practiced with me using his arm muscles. We will really begin to focus on some more exercise to keep his muscles and joints limber and strong to prepare him for rehab. I have given him permission to curse and say what ever he wants to me because I am not going to give up and I am not going to stop loving him. I realized that "love never fails" (scripture found in Corinthians) is that agape unconditional love. So when I get upset when he is letting it all out, that that is not agape love. It is unconditional love that does not fail. It is amazing when I gave him permission that the behavior decreases. It's not him anyway, it is the brain injury and the meds talking so who really cares. I certainly don't need to try to have any kind of conversation with that stuff speaking through him. It is so wonderful when I get glimpses of the real Dustin. He is in there and we call him as God created to come forth.

Going to do another round of exercises before time to go. May God bless all that you are doing to represent Him.

P.S.- I think Obama is following me around. He was in Roanoke VA when I visited my mom and was disrupting the airport when I flew back here. Last night he spoke at Univ of NM and the his entourage brought him downtown where we live. I think every policeman in the state was down there.











love you all
mary pat