Pray for hope

Hi to all - Dustin had his swallowing test today that he had been practicing for one month. Unfortunately, he did not pass although he had improved 70% from last months. Dustin was very disappointed as he was really ready to eat. The harder part is he will have to wait another 3-4 weeks to try again. Needless to say he was frustrated since this was his own personal goal to pass and eat. He had had a difficult day yesterday with a lot of congestion whereby they had to put him back on the vent early. They then woke him up today stuffing chocolate pudding in his mouth and I think he was just too much to take at one time. I am in agreement with them that his lungs and weaning off the vent are THE most important thing right now. I know it is hard , however when your heart is thinking of all the foods you can't wait to eat. After the test, he asked if he could even just have some water. Of course water is one of the hardest things to keep from being aspirated into his lungs. Bummer.

They also gave him another unit of blood as his red blood cells had dropped due to some continual bleeding from his wound and the side effects of Celebrex and another drug that cause some GI bleeding.

He basically had a bad day. I reminded him he could start his day over anytime. That the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy and it was up to him when he was going to take control and say "enough is enough- you will steal no more". I encouraged him to communicate with the nurse manager, the doctor and to work hard at relationships and not go into bitterness and unforgiveness. We all know that bitterness defiles everyone and does no one any good. The stress and anxiety are also hard on the immune and respiratory and probably every other system and we are so done with that!! We need life and life more abundantly and nothing less.

Please pray for him to have a soft and compassionate heart for other people who may not be up to his expectations that take care of him. That really, it is God, that is the "Great Physician" and everything else is medical practice and will never be the perfect solution. We talked f0r about an hour and it ended up to be an encouraging conversation. Trust me , it did not necessarily start out that way.

I want everyone to know waht a great birthdya he had. Nerina and her mother visited, all of his Air Force and college friends called and he received gifts and a decorated room by the nurse. Thanks for making it special.

love
mary pat