Update on Dad
Tuesday, April 9 - 11:30pm
Big day today! Last night they moved Dad to dedicated cardio unit at Oschner's hospital in New Orleans. When we arrived this morning, we were amazed to find that they had already removed his breathing tubes! The fluid has successfully drained out from his lungs and his heart.
Later, he was able to eat his first meal since Saturday! So good, because he's been starving. These are two MAJOR benchmarks cleared in ONE day.
It's like we have him "back" because he can speak and joke with us. He's in great spirits, and I think he's slowly starting to grasp how serious his situation is. He's also having a lot of pain in his back (which is not hard to understand, because his legs have to stay at a 15 degree angle so his heart balloon will function properly).
The doctors here are still in the evaluation stages. Despite everything that was discovered in Baton Rouge, they want to run their own assessments, as well as study the heart cath films from Sunday. They performed an ultrasound, which revealed that his heart is still VERY weak.
So, the next step is to gradually start weening him off his meds tomorrow and see how his body reacts. If it goes well then they can take him off the balloon heart pump. Then they can get an MRI of his heart to chart the blood flow (or lack of).
Today's prayer point is that his heart would continue to NATURALLY gain strength so it can function without the aid of the pump, which is the next benchmark and will decide where we go from here.
Certainly not a difficult task for the God of angel armies.
We want to thank everyone for the overwhelming shows of support and love -- countless texts, wall posts and phone calls. There's no way to ever express our appreciation, and not enough time to thank you each personally. But please know that we receive them and each one reloads our joy!
For regular updates, stay tuned to Ashleigh Jayne Photography's profile. She does a better job at this than I do.
Love you all and thanks for standing with us in prayer through these stormy waters. It's time like this we can see Jesus' footprints in the waves!
Tuesday, April 9 - 11:30pm
Welcome to the CICU!
Big day today! Last night they moved Dad to dedicated cardio unit at Oschner's hospital in New Orleans. When we arrived this morning, we were amazed to find that they had already removed his breathing tubes! The fluid has successfully drained out from his lungs and his heart.
Later, he was able to eat his first meal since Saturday! So good, because he's been starving. These are two MAJOR benchmarks cleared in ONE day.
It's like we have him "back" because he can speak and joke with us. He's in great spirits, and I think he's slowly starting to grasp how serious his situation is. He's also having a lot of pain in his back (which is not hard to understand, because his legs have to stay at a 15 degree angle so his heart balloon will function properly).
The doctors here are still in the evaluation stages. Despite everything that was discovered in Baton Rouge, they want to run their own assessments, as well as study the heart cath films from Sunday. They performed an ultrasound, which revealed that his heart is still VERY weak.
So, the next step is to gradually start weening him off his meds tomorrow and see how his body reacts. If it goes well then they can take him off the balloon heart pump. Then they can get an MRI of his heart to chart the blood flow (or lack of).
Today's prayer point is that his heart would continue to NATURALLY gain strength so it can function without the aid of the pump, which is the next benchmark and will decide where we go from here.
Certainly not a difficult task for the God of angel armies.
We want to thank everyone for the overwhelming shows of support and love -- countless texts, wall posts and phone calls. There's no way to ever express our appreciation, and not enough time to thank you each personally. But please know that we receive them and each one reloads our joy!
For regular updates, stay tuned to Ashleigh Jayne Photography's profile. She does a better job at this than I do.
Love you all and thanks for standing with us in prayer through these stormy waters. It's time like this we can see Jesus' footprints in the waves!
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