Friday June 19

The fact that there is not a business center at John's current location makes updating the blog a bit troublesome and reliant upon me being at home. Also, while I forward all emails to Holly and attempt to respond to them as fast as possible, it may take a bit longer but I assure you that as events happen, I will update here as soon as I can and respond to emails in the same manner.

Today, John had dialysis again and he was quite restful and sleepy throughout the day. He also had a PICC line placed in his left arm on the underside of his bicep. This stands for peripheral inserted central catheter or a central line. They use this type of line quite a bit with people who may require an IV line for longer than 10 days such as patients who need chemotherapy or larger doses of antibiotics which might otherwise deteriorate the veins. This line can stay in for as long as a year if needed and will help with not having to stick him for the usual IV lines or to give medication. The other plus to this sort of line is that there is less risk of infection and allows patients to have a bit more mobility than standard IV lines. It goes in at his arm but the medication is administered close to the end of the line (near the heart) which is good because veins get larger as they get closer to the heart. Some veins don't respond well to antibiotics and other essential medications but this one will and should give a valuable access point for continuous intravenous therapy. The nurse who did the procedure allowed me to stay with him and observe and he seemed to derive no discomfort from this procedure and actually seemed to sleep during most of it.

A few people have asked about further brain testing. He is scheduled for an MRI which might show small bleeding in his brain however we are pretty sure that based on his previous catscan results and EEG results he has not had signs of bleeding or of a stroke. We do know that his brain was without oxygen and although the scans and tests which can be run might show problematic areas, this is sort of a, "What you have is what you have", kind of scenario and at this point, we are still in waiting mode. While these tests might help, the bottom line is that it will take some time to determine what his future capabilities will be and there is no test which determines this. We simply must continue to be patient and wait to see what John might be able to recover in terms of movement, speech and bodily function. While to us, 17 days seems like a huge amount of time, in this situation it is not a long time. When you figure that the average life span of a normal male is 75 years or an incredible 27,275 days, it seems that 17 of them is just a drop in the bucket.

The parade of physicians and nurses through John's room is nothing less than a really well orchestrated symphony. There are also a myriad of therapists who will be working with him and they are somehow able to work together and the level of communication between them is really special. We have enjoyed this renewed enthusiasm in John and the special circumstances which surround this terrible tragedy and we remain eager to answer any and all questions which might arise and possibly change their perspective a bit or provide some insight into what might help and we are receptive to their new ideas about John. In short, we are a part of this communication chain and grateful for the exceptional care he is receiving.