Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Daniel updates

I´m just going to post the updates I get from Daniel´s mom for those of you who are interested and actually write about what I´m doing, so I get both of them done. Here are his updates for today:

Update on Daniel
It was a good day. We had three different doctors come in today. The internist, trauma surgeon and infectious diseases doc. Another specialist is to come tomorrow about nutrition. They are watching Daniel, trying to get his counts at a good place and then see about the surgery. His blood pressure was low today. His liver has some understandable probs per the internist that she is watching. She is also working on hydrating him.

Treatment plan: about 8 weeks of intravenous antibiotics that he can finish doing at home when he is released, see how he does in the hospital the next couple of days and then the trauma surgeon will be closer to making a decision on removing his right colon at some point (not an emergency but probably necessary at some point) which all docs say would have been protocol in the US, no driving for at least 6 weeks, wound care for front of abdomen, sit up and walk as much as possible (use it or lose it the trauma MD said).

We feel very good about our doctor friend Allison being his primary. She is very proactive. Other docs were great too. Taking time to answer our questions and explain things well. Had loving calls and visits today. We felt loved by them and our Father above.

Second Update

I am tired and it is late but wanted to let you know it was a good day. Daniel saw several doctors today who got various things going. We still don't know about surgery but Daniel will be watched the next couple of days by the trauma surgeon and internist to see how he is progressing. The doctors are still saying surgery to remove part of the colon is the most likely course but they are working on assessing and getting everything going the right direction for now.

We do know he will be on IV antibiotics for around 8 weeks. Dr. Hendrickson explained that he can continue this course of treatment once he is released from the hospital whether that is in a few days or later if surgery is done sometime soon. Other functions are off but not critical so she is working on all those issues too.

We felt very blessed today by all of the doctors. The trauma surgeon was very professional and down to earth. He took time to explain and answer our questions which helped Eddie and I a lot. The doctor prescribing the IV antibiotics gave great direction on what to expect and why that course of treatment is best. And Dr. Hendrickson (our friend Allison) was proactive and very comforting to us. We praise God for putting her in our lives years ago for such a time as this.

Jonathan and Sara Ann are taking night duty with Daniel at the hospital (Jonathan last night and Sara Ann tonight and they'll switch off as needed for now). We praise the Lord for their love for their brother and their Lord. We were blessed with several phone calls and brief visits today. Thank you Iva Nell and Jane Jane for setting that up.

We are all tired but good. Daniel is sleeping better since he has arrived (hours and hours of travel was good for him in that way). Eddie and I are trying to get back to some normalcy in life. Especially since Dr. Hendrickson said this will be a months and months recovery, not days or weeks. We are thrilled to have Daniel around for awhile (instead of Alaska or Ecuador) and look forward to many more sweet times like some of the conversations we had today. Thank you Lord for a sweet son whose heart's desire is to be totally yours.

1 comment:

Steve and Joan said...

Ross, I was able to visit with Daniel for about 30 minutes yesterday. He looked really good for a guy that had been shot. He smiled and laughed and asked about the class I taught last week using notes from your blog. Daniel asked me to pass on some faith challenges to our High School group.

Keep up the good work!