Home Sweet Home

HI everybody - we are finally home. We left Virginia on Tuesday and drove to Augusta. It was so beautiful with all the leaves coming from VA and then to see them changing as we got home to GA. Tuesday night we visited with Dustin whom mostly was a little withdrawn and tired. He has not been sleeping so well with the 24 hour activity and Dustin is not know for his good sleep habits to start with. We left the hospital and Rick took me to Outback Steak for my birthday dinner in the weird outfit!!

The next morning we were going to see Dustin and try to get out of there around 12:00. We got there and as usual he was in his sleepy/withdrawn state. Rick and I went and talked to the doctor, speech therapist and occupational therapist and as we were leaving later, the psychologist came by. Not much information as he had had fevers and not really able to do much therapy. He has had bedside range of motion exercises for the most part and right now the main goal is to get him off the vent. they have postponed that for now until the fever is taken care of. They have not found any infections in all of the lab work etc so may just be "fevers of unknown origin". Once they can establish that they will go ahead and start weaning him . He is also onm hold to try more foods/swallowing except for water. He is "starving" which is a great sign.

I messed with him and got him awake and then they came to do his routine care (bath, change sheets, bowel care etc). After that he seemed to have trouble breathing but we did have some great conversation. He is concerned about his future but that also means he is not in denial or not understanding the possible future issues cognitively. We agreed that we both had changes in our life as many people do at different times and we would just tackle it together. He teared up when we talked about his grandmother dying. I have not talked about Forrest death with him yet and not sure he understands that yet, although if we talked about it now, I know he would. Somehow I am not ready to add that burden to his life quite yet.

He then seemed to really have trouble breathing and a bit later he was afraid of dying as he could not seem to breath well even thought the vent will actually breath for him if he is unable to do it for himself. He continues to have so much fluid and phlegm in his lungs and once again, he went into respiratory distress. they came in and decided to do another bronchoscopy to pull the fluid out of his lungs. they gave him demoral even though he really seems to not want drugs and did the procedure. I was in the room and watched it on the screen as they went into his lungs with a camera and pulled out the fluid.

After the procedure he was rally naseaus from the demoral and they of course gave him something for that. He still seemed to have trouble breathing but by this time it was pure anxiety and feeling bad. He had had a big day with all of the healthcare and procedure and was exhausted. He was needing to sleep but the anxiety and fear of dying if he went to sleep was overwhelming. I asked if I could pray for him and he jumped right on it. I prayed and spoke scriptures over him until he calmed down and was seemingly ready to go to sleep. It was about 4pm by this time. We again talked about God and Jesus and the importance of that relationship and the ability to call out to Him at anytime. That God alone was in charge of life, not doctors.

We left as he was going to sleep and got home about 7:30. It is a pretty dark ridfde on back GA rodes so of course I was glad to have my awesome husband driving. I was pretty much whipped as I had had the weird episode at the hospital pretty early on in the day. I was talking to the speech therapist, whom I really like and begin to feel very faint. I wrapped up that conversation and sat down with my head between my legs. It didn't seem to help and the next thing I know the nurses have me hooked up to the blood pressure machine telling me my blood pressure was somewhere around 53/32 and my pulse was 42. It took a bit but with my legs propped up and lots of water I recovered. They were all wanting me to go to the emergency room but I knew I would be ok. Rick had gone to the dayroom to read (not much room in Dusitn's room especially when healthcare people are there) and I just said "please get my husband". He came and prayed for me and I got back to normal. I th ink that was hard on Dustin as he was watching me the whole time and didn't know what was going on. As I was sitting there recovering, Dustin and I were both looking each other trying to get well.

We got home and today was beautiful. We have a lot of work to do around the house and also having brought a bunch of stuff from my mom's house. I called the VA and they said Dustin was soooooooooooo much better today all around. I really believe he reached out to God on his own and we are on a new path. Please continue to pray against bed sore, respiratory issues, pneumonia and other infections and as always a creative miracle. there was a visitor who came to see the guy in the bed next to Dustin who asked if he could pray for him,. We agreed and he really believed after praying that Dustin will walk again. We all join in with him and with each other for this great miracle of God.

We love you all and continue to ask for your prayers and support.

Rick and Mary Pat