April 11, 2010

Several weeks ago, John had surgery to replace the Baclofen pump leads. Up to that point he had been having some difficulty swallowing and so eating and drinking were arduous. It was decided that physicians would place a PEG feeding tube in John's abdominal area to assist him in getting the appropriate amount of fluids and nutrition. This was an outpatient procedure performed at St. Joseph's hospital.

John returned to TIRR but after a few days, John's physicians noticed that his hemoglobin counts were steadily declining. At first, they believed that his body was simply recovering from two surgeries within weeks however it soon became apparent that there was something else wrong. They continued to test his blood and continue his medications but the hemoglobin numbers kept getting worse to the point that John required several blood transfusions throughout the weekend and we were waiting to see whether John would need further surgery. As it turns out, declining hemoglobin numbers can be a clear indication of internal bleeding and we were told that if it got worse, John would need surgery to correct it.

Shortly thereafter, John was taken to St. Joseph's hospital and was immediately taken into endoscopy surgery where his doctor quickly found the source of the bleeding and corrected it. John stayed in the hospital for several days for monitoring and to recuperate and receive blood and placelets to help him get his strength back and raise his hemoglobin levels. Fortunately, it worked. John is now back at TIRR and will hopefully keep getting stronger and will resume therapy this week.

As far as John's progress and current status, what I can tell you is that his body has undergone a tremendous amount of stress and it is difficult at this point to guage where he is in his recovery because he has been through so much in the past 4 weeks. Since he has been at TIRR, he has been unable to fully utilize therapeutic resources as he failed to reach a level of stability which would allow him to do the things necessary to regain his strength. Each of the times he would go through surgery, we would hope that he would recover quickly and be able to resume therapy and continue on his path to recovery however, each time there have been huge obstacles. I will tell you that John has not been in pain and has had constant care from family and medical personnel.

This situation was critical and was not anything that was expected. Holly wanted to mention that if she has been a bit unavailable as of late, it is because she has been at the hospital with John. As always, we simply cannot express enough how much your thoughts and prayers mean to us.