Update #75

Yesterday morning, I was looking for something in one of the very early posts of Dave's blog and ended up rereading a good portion of the first two weeks of the website. All over again, I was blown away by how clearly God has been working in Dave's life and his recovery. Over the past few weeks, I have been finding myself getting impatient, looking in vain for major advances and becoming frustrated that Dave is still in the ICU. As I reread the early posts, however, I was completely humbled to realize just how far he has come and how much God is doing to heal him (the amount that happened in the first week will never cease to blow me away). Sometimes, it is hard to remember (I would guess it is probably even harder for those of you who haven't seen Dave in a while, or at all since the accident) how truly blessed we are. Dave may still be in the same bed that he was in 10 weeks ago, and we all still have a long road ahead of us. But in the midst of his recovery, he is Dave - he is awake, he is "talking," he is laughing, and he is inspiring so many of us to continue to fight through our own battles on a daily basis. I'm not sure if anyone else needed that reminder and reassurance of his progress, but the realization certainly hit me pretty powerfully yesterday.

As for today, no huge updates, but things continue to progress smoothly. Dave is working at least 12 hours per day consistently on the trach collar and seems to be relaxed while he is doing it. The nurses let me spend the night in a chair in his room last night, so I'm going to try to convince him to go through the night on the trach collar and sleep through it tonight if I stay with him again - be praying that he has the energy to try. He's already been going for six hours today and is doing great.

His leg seems to be feeling a lot better, and he only has some residual effects of the blood clot in his left hip and thigh and on the top of his foot (blistering mostly). He's allowing us to move both legs quite a bit and seems to be gaining some strength.

One other prayer request in addition to the breathing - the doctors changed Dave from Lovonox to a new blood thinning medicine to prevent further blood clots. The new med, Coumadin, is working, which is good, but it is causing increased bleeding in random places, specifically in his throat when the nurses suction out his trach tube. Supposedly, the amount of blood is not worrisome, but it is still pretty scary to see blood coming out of his throat when he coughs. Be praying that the doctors will find a good balance between preventing blood clots and not making him bleed unnecessarily.

Otherwise, today has been a good day. Thanks for the continued prayers!