Evening Update II

I just got off the phone with Chip who had just finished speaking with the doctors. This is what he had to say:

The overall prognosis is good, TJ is alert -- even smiling and "chuckling!" Although, for obvious reasons he isn't in a great mood.

This morning's chest X-Ray show improvement over yesterday. The doctors think that may have come from the pressure of intubation. However, they also had him on 100% oxygen yesterday, which is now turned down to 60%. As a side note, they are really staying on top of things. Normally you wouldn't start someone on 100% O2 right off the bat, but staying ahead of the curve is great and could significantly speed up the recovery process (in the hospital and out).

His white blood cell count is down from yesterday (I don't know by how much) which is another good thing. His kidneys are also functioing better than yesterday although Chip says they were never bad (amazing, given that they have been an issue even in the last few months).

I'll probably head off to bed again soon, so expect this to be the last update for the evening. Feel free to leave questions if you have any as always.

Prayer Points:

• Pain: TJ was feeling pretty crappy before he "left," and is feeling worse now. It's great that he is not sedated past what is necessary but everything else aside, being intubated is not a fun thing. In my mom's words, "it's like having a garden hose shoved down your throat." Ouch. So pray that he is as comfortable as can be.
  
• Wisdom/Safety: The doctors may increase the pressure on the ventilator to try to continue to "push" the pneumonia out. With ARDS this does carry a risk of rupturing the lungs, no good. Pray that the doctors make the best deciscion, and that if the pressure is increased there are no negative side effects.
• Complete Healing: We continue to ask God to completely heal TJ, and to bring him back to his level of health he had before MRSA (which he never fully regained).
• Praise: I can't say this now with confidence, but we may already be at the turning point (although last time around we had a few of those, or thought we did). I can't say it with confidence because if we are there we are in the middle of it and can't see it yet. Still, we thank the Lord for all He has done so far.
• Patience for the family: All of us had the same reaction as the news came in: you've got to be kidding me! Again??? Patience is not coming quickly. We thought we were "over this." There is a sense of bewildermant. How does this happen twice? So please pray that we are patient through this process and that we wait upon the Lord while praying boldy at the same time.