Whew to whoa

My goodness, it's taken a day to recover to write. I have now numbered the "worst days of my life" per Rick. The last two days have been the worst after the plane ride form Albuquerque but we are recovering from the weekend and the surgery performed on Monday. Today we have hope again and are still believing in the power of the Living God. Yesterday I had a conversation with God like never before. With all of the prayers going up and ours as well, it was like,Dustin was going down hill like skiing on an expert ski slope.. God , where are you, are you out there? Let me explain.

As you know, Dustin's airway was basically blocked and drowning in lung fluids while his oxygen saturation was looking fine. The "nice little Mary Pat" went a little ballistic with the doctor on Monday and they "found' ENT doctors that were able to do the surgery instead off waiting until the scheduled Tuesday. They did the surgery thinking they were going in to remove the granularization tissue around the trach, however they found really more "acute" damage from the past weeks trach change.

What they needed, they did not have and that was a longer trach tube to bypass the scar tissue in the trach. What they had to do was take the flexible tubing, that normally is an oral endotrach tube, and placed it down his trach in his neck. They had the necessary length and sewed it in place in his neck. What is important to understand is that this goes down to where the "Y" is from your esophogus into your right and left lung. If this tube is moved 1/4 inch up or down it will totally block his airway, and thus provides a critical situation. Because of this, he is not able to move at all! In the meantime they are trying to address the bedsores while still trying to "keep the bed from eating him up". Currently he is in Intensive care and will be for the next week as to keep him still and let the scar tissue heal. Please pray that the tissue heals correctly and not blocking th airway, as well as supernatural healing of the bedore.

We so don't want to lose the progress that he had made with his neck muscles and arms. He is beginning to have a "grasp response" in his hands which is awesome. Pray that God will maintain what he had accomplished in his bedside rehab before being currently place flat on his back.

This has all been a tremendous spiritual battle for Rick and I. I have had some pretty "in your face conversations" with God and today he has really shown Himself to still be on the throne (imagine that!). Today, Dustin is doing well and his attitude remains positive. As usual, they tried to put him on antidepressants but we quickly annihilated that. Actually when Rick and I talked about this tonight over delicious homemade split pea soup, Bojangles chicken and cole slaw, we saw that of all of us, Dustin has remained the most consistent.

Rick will be going home tomorrow to get clean clothes and warm clothes as it is to be 12 degrees here. I was originally here for my usual Friday to Sunday visit when literally all hell broke lose. I was overwhelmed by Dustin's quickly going down hill status when Rick showed up in the critical care waiting room Boy was I glad to see him. I am not sure how I would have handled it all without his support. My old "I can do it myself" would have surfaced to carry me through but isn't it great I don't have to be totally strong and in control!?!??! I know this is a lot of jumble even as I read over it to post it. All I can say is I am glad today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better yet. One day we will look back on this and say "oh it was nothing". Until then, please keep praying for all of us. I am not one to ask for help but I can assure you your prayers are priceless. when you have prayed and prayed and nothing seems to happen, you are really grateful that back-up prayer is there.

Everyone out there is precious to us!
mary pat