1/20 - Sam's Journey - Day 39

There is not a lot of new and super-exciting information at this point, but I did want to fill you in on how the last couple of days have gone for Sam. He continues to baby step his way through recovery with the occasional minor setback. He spent 8 hours on Monday and 9 hours on Tuesday off the vent, and his sats are holding. We're hoping for as little vent dependence as possible as we move into the next phase of recovery. And, as is his usual mode of operation, Sam has made another machine cry. The vent that he uses is not reading his respiration rate correctly and jacks it up 20 to 40 points higher than it really is. Several people rushed into the room last night in a panic that he was in distress. My only guess is that somewhere along the line, Sam heard the term "Durable Medical Equipment" and took that as a challenge to discredit the "durable" part.

He continues to work on his endurance in the chair. Today he was there for 3 hours and did great, although he was exhausted near the end and slept for most of the rest of the day. Chair time is pretty interesting to watch. It's like the right side of his body believes that it's at a raging dance party and is in constant movement. Meanwhile the left side occasionally expresses interest in attending that party and then appears to reconsider and decides that a nap would be a more sensible idea. He has to be constantly monitored because he practically pushes himself out of the chair sometimes. He's also been lifting up his right arm a lot while in the bed, and has been reaching for his trach tubing. Usually, he lets his hand simply rest there, but today, he had a solid grip on one of them. That's certainly something to watch for as he continues to come off of the meds that have been keeping him so mellow. He also intentionally tried to pull off his pulse ox, but if he's doing that, it's not so big of a deal.

One not so positive new tidbit is that he's developed another infection in his respiratory tract. We caught it early and he's already on an antibiotic and hasn't even spiked a fever from it. 

Something big on the horizon is that, although we are waiting for insurance companies and the other powers that be to verify this, he might be going to rehab as early as Thursday. If it doesn't happen on Thursday, it will will probably be at some point in the following week. This is exciting, because we want to see him moving on to the next part of the journey. We know that he will make great strides there and are looking forward to being in a place that will make that happen. I will give you the official thumbs up when we get the word.

Specific prayer requests for today are:

• that the antibiotics knock out this lung infection, and that his progress isn't impeded
• that our move to the rehab facility happens at the right time, and that the transition is smooth for all of us
• that he continues to receive excellent and attentive care from the medical staff charged with his recovery
• for a friend waiting for medical test results, for a colleague that had family changes affecting her life plans, and for young Aaron who is battling through his own recovery from a TBI.

Thank you for your continued boundless generosity of support, offers of help, and of course, ceaseless prayer. I'm sharing a video that his choir director shared with me. It makes us all laugh, because how can you not laugh at a video of the kid practicing All State music while dancing and keeping time with a skeleton leg?