Update from Tampa

Hi to all - it has been awhile since I posted as I have been home doing a lot of teaching, gardening and cabin cleaning, as well as adding 12 brown egg laying chicks and 1 baby turkey to our 22 rare breed mixed chickens. Chickens, raising worms for worm poop and gardening have definitely kept me occupied until finally getting back to see Dustin. I am finally on a scheduled of working for 2 weeks during the Be In Health programs and then head to Tampa on the off week.

Of course I get to talk to Dustin most every night since he is off the vent.............yes I said off the vent, 24 hours a day for the last 10 days!!!! That is so awesome to call him and talk whenever you feel like it. He was only supposed to be off the vent on a trial 24 basis starting this past Monday, but you have to know Dustin when I say he took advantage of some new nurses who didn't really seem to know what was going on. He had been "redcapped" during the day for about a week and I guess when they came back on the shift, they asked him if he was "redcapped" through the night and he decided to tell them "yes" since he had felt fine the whole time.

Now I certainly don't condone doing whatever you want but he managed to get 2 extra nights off the vent with no one knowing. He said it was very hard after breathing on your own, for them to put you back on the vent at night. Basically you have to stop breathing and let the machine take over whereby you feel like you are suffocating. I guess the nurses coming back on after 2 days off figured it out and put him back on the vent (on a Sunday) and then the next day, his doctor had already promised hinm she would let him go off the vent at night.

He is also sitting up in his wheelchair, first for one hour at a time and now up to 2 hours per day. His bedsore is still healing and will be for a good long time since it was so large and deep. He now rides around in his $40,000 wheelchair (medicine has always been overpriced don't you think?) using his chin joy stick. The other day I called and he said he had stopped over at the wheelchair office and asked if they could speed his wheelchair up! When Rick and I had to learn to be backup on the wheelchair, you could put it in a speed that would fly. I guess they put a governor on it until he got good at driving it. Dustin has always been a quick learner at driving and coordination so he was quickly pressing for speed.

His right arm continues to be slowly casted to make it straight and is changed about once a week. It had been so contracted and now is about 3/4 straight. He is getting some feeling in that arm but is actually getting more movement and feeling in his left arm that originally was a problem with the dislocated elbow and shoulder. He even has feeling in his thumb and parts of his hand as well as really good wrist movement!! Yeah God!!

His weight is stable at a whooping 129 pounds on his 6'2 frame but he is looking tan and healthy from going outside in his wheelchair. We are hoping to get a picture of him and Nerina soon for the website.

He has been on the tilt table , in Physical therapy, where they strap him down and "stand" him up as far as they can without his blood pressure going low. He has made it to 75 degrees position with a little wooziness. He continues to eat yougurt, banana, pudding etc to prepare for his next swallowing test. Apparently he is not doing as well with liquids but hopefully he will pass his next swallowingt test next week. Please pray for that so he can eat!!

Also pray for a supernatural quick healing of his bedsore. It is doing very well but when he can stay up longer, he will begin to be able to go out for a variety of activities- movies, ball games, hockey games, mall etc. That will have to be fun even if he is not the big sports fan. Last week, he had a visit by a famous race car driver who brought him a signed baseball cap. He still likes his John Deere one we brought him better. I guess it is that latent farmer gene being dominant!!

We had a real encouragement from a recent person who stayed in our cabin. She is from LA and is good friends with a man who is very prominent in the film industry. She felt like he, as a new Christian, and a really great guy would love to meet Dustin and hear about his story and interest in film/camera/writing. We are still believing for him to write, direct, produce or film an Oscar award winning movie that will turn the world up side down, especially when they see where he has come from. Please be in total agreement that God will use for good what the enemy meant for harm.

I wil be here all week and on Thursday, my good friend from Naples will be coming up and going over to Orlando/Sanford area with me to look at Stepping Up/Project Walk, an intensive "Navy Seals" rehab that believes that is you exercise the neurons enough they will grow and produce new pathways for movement etc. Please keep Liza in you prayers. She is a single mom whose daughter had a spinal cord injury. She took her to the Project Walk in San Diego (home office) and saw people who had learned to walk and still could not feel their legs and decided to open one on the east coast in Sanford, near Orlando.

I totally believe in the concept as it is similar to what we teach at Be in Health. Liza has done all of the leg work to open this non profit organization by pure passion. She needs volunteers and money for some of the equipment that is needed. Dustin hopes to leave the VA and perhaps buy a house to redo all disabled accessible and rent a few rooms to those who will be coming to the rehab for 1-2 months. He will do his rehab and hopefully also begin to volunteer at Fullsail University, his alma mater. This will get him back in the swing of things, give him some extra income so he can stay home and write scripts (his love besides the camera) and get him close to Nerina. Please pray God has the perfect LARGE house, in the perfect location at a great price to carry out these goals.

Dustin, Rick and I want to thank everyone who sent cards. There were a 72 cards sent from all over including my mom's church. We are humbled at people who we don't even know took the time to send cards. It certainly was God on paper!

I will be talking to the vocational rehab people about computers, book page turners etc as we begin to think even now of discharge and new skills to practice.

Rick and I are doing great. We planted a beautiful "Dawn redwood" tree in memory of Forrest with an awesome little sculpture of a little boy and his dog sitting on a bench. It is down by our new lake and really fits our memories of Forrest. When he was little we used to call him "Forrest Fish" as he loved the water.

We thank everyone for your continued prayers.

love,
mary pat