Re: Prayers for TracyP
First of all I apologize for the time it took me to update you all. Yesterday was a hard day and we've had a lot of visitors so it's been difficult to find time to post. The neurologist came in yesterday morning to give us the results of the MRI, telling us that there was massive brain damage due to loss of oxygen during the heart attack. The lower level areas of the brain that control functions like breathing and blinking appear intact, but most of the higher functioning areas of the brain were damaged. He told us the hope for recovery beyond a vegetative state was slim to none. That being said, we have decided to leave it in God's hands because if anybody can heal him God can. We decided to see where he's at in a few days and if we're seeing signs of recovery and just trying to stay faithful. The doctor did say he did not think he was in pain or suffering and that he would wait a few days as well.
I think my first post detailed some of the good things we saw on Tuesday. Well Tuesday evening they took him for an MRI and after he came back he didn't really try to open his eyes or move at all or respond. He was the same all day Wednesday and after the news from the neurologist it was a difficult day. We thought maybe he was just tired, though. Today he has started opening his eyes some again and we actually saw some side to side movement in his eyes at one point like he was trying to figure out where he was. He will close his right hand around mine or Kathy's at times, and we've seen him move his shoulders as well. He's having tremors associated with what they call neural storm (neurostorm?) which causes his legs and arms to shake, but the shoulder movement was different. We've also seen him cry a time or two, only when he is somewhat active. The nurse came in to remove some old IV's from his right arm and she felt him pull his arm away because of the pain of what she was doing. Kathy was holding his left arm at the time and she felt him try to move his left arm toward the nurse as if he wanted to swat her away. Of course he doesn't have much energy so he's not making large movements, but we've told this to the neurologist and he did say that it was progress. We are all hopeful and continuing to pray that God is going to heal him, and I really believe he is working on it because of the things we've seen today.
I will try hard to keep you all updated and if you don't hear from me for a day, please don't think I've forgotten about you. He has had more visitor's in one day than the entire CCU has had since we've been here. Every one of them is welcome and we're pleased to see them, but it makes it hard to post updates. Please continue to pray for him and thank you all for your kind words. I've read about half of these replies to him already and I will read them all to him this evening. He knows he is loved.
Edit: I forgot to say but if any of you would like to visit we are fine with that and the hospital has been really lenient about visitors. They haven't limited us to who can come back or how many. I know you're all scattered across the state and we all understand if you don't visit, but please don't feel like you can't.