Latest Update:

Daniel has finally passed the 3-month mark since his heart surgery, --he can start resuming his normal life. Normal life to Daniel means having a basketball in his hands. He promised he would shave his beard once he could play B-ball again, so on Mother's day he shocked me with a clean-shaven face. It was a very pleasant surprise - the kind that causes Moms to cry. I never could get used to his red beard that had taken on a creepy life of it's own. So now he is clean-shaven handsome, and has a new rec center card. This week he started lifting weights and shooting baskets to build up his endurance and strength. Daniel has decided not to return to college for the summer semester, but will stay here in Texas until August, when he and his sister Skyler will head to BYU together. Living back under his parent's roof has been an adjustment for Daniel--he doesn't like the scrutiny and expectations from Mom and Dad, but he has admitted he likes the free food and a loyal dog who always greets him happily day and night. Daniel will now start to search for a summer job since he will be in Texas for a few more months. Daniel is hanging out with friends, both old and new. If there is a gathering of young single friends - he is there! -----------

Rochele

He lived to see his 23rd birhtday...

"From Texas: This past week we celebrated Daniel’s 23rd birthday. Eight weeks ago we didn’t know if we would still have him with us on this birthday, so this celebration had extra special meaning. (He was born on St Patrick’s day, with red hair of course.) Our celebration this week was family-sized, but he did have a whale-sized going-away party when he left college. We took him to lunch at his favorite restaurant – “Saltgrass” where he enjoyed steak and fried shrimp. He is still trying to pack on a few more pounds to regain what he lost in the hospital. Daniel has a red, ‘chin-strap’ type beard which he says will stay until he is able to play basketball again. I have to endure the beard while he endures the activity limitations. I look forward to his clean-shaven ‘BYU’ standards’ face again. He gets to start driving this week. Happy event for him. He will now drive himself to cardiac rehab three days per week, and to the chiropractor once a week. (He was getting severe headaches after the hospital, and he gets his neck adjusted to relieve the pain.) Daniel’s X-box broke a few days after arrival in Texas. But he sent it off for repairs and it came back on his birthday. So I counted that as his birthday present. He plays a snowboarding game, since he won’t be back on the real slopes until next winter. Daniel is doing well with his recovery and plans to head back to college for summer semester, so he can get back on track. We continue to be amazed at his speedy recovery and return to normalcy. "

Life Savers!

Well, Daniel and my mom are headed back to Texas tomorrow morning, but Daniel is trying to make his last few days here as fun as possible (we are still making him go to rehab every day though- aren't we so mean?) Today we went to the fire station and met with the team of paramedics who saved Daniel's life. A couple of them came by the hospital when Daniel was just waking up, but thanks to his short term memory problem at the time, he didn't remember that. We called the fire station to see if we could stop by and let Daniel meet them again. Mom said "We can stop by about 1:00 so we won't interrupt lunch or anything" and they told her "Go ahead and come at noon! We'll barbecue for you!"

So we had a fantastic lunch today! It was such a great experience to be able to go and see them all and thank them in person! It was emotional hearing the story from the source and remembering how close we were to losing Daniel. The paramedics told us that it was fun for them to get to know Dirty Dan because they don't usually get to see that side of the people that they work with or save. We will be ever grateful to them for saving Daniel and for all of the work that they do daily. Thank you Scott, Deon, Jeff, Brian, and Stan! And also to the police officer who started chest compressions so the paramedics could do the other life saving measures required!

They also called a photographer from the Daily Herald to come and get pictures of Daniel and his rescuers. They said that they would run a story on it today (Saturday Feb, 28) so look for him there!

They let him go

Well, he's out now! After his procedure on Monday - which went really well by the way! They found zero electrical problems in his heart!- they made him lay still for 6 hours. I think he made it almost 5 and a half before he broke the rules, ha ha. Then they released him from the hospital on Tuesday. I think Tuesday was one of Daniel's longest days EVER because he had to be released by several different doctors, and they couldn't get a hold of one of them until late afternoon. So he was sitting there with his things packed up ready to make a run for it at 8 in the morning, but they still wouldn't let him go. Ha ha. We did get him a new phone that day though, so he's accessible again.

Now that he has been released he's doing outpatient rehab. That means he's got to stay in Utah for a while longer because he needs to be observed once or twice a day until the doctors will release him to make the long trip back to Texas. We don't know exactly how long this will last. They said maybe 2-4 weeks. We're banking on 2 with the speed of Daniel's recovery so far. Besides, Daniel is determined to show up all of those 80 year- olds he has to go to rehab with every day! Ha ha. According to him all of the other patients question him daily about why he's there, because at his age he definitely doesn't fit in!

He and my mom will drive back (and no- not matter how much he insists, Daniel will not be driving) So that we can get his car back to Texas along with some of his stuff. But don't worry, he'll be back! Hopefully he and Skyler can just bring all their stuff right back up here this fall :)

I'll try to keep posts on the blog about progress, but the progress is significantly more boring now that narrowly escaping death... so the posts may not be as frequent and definitely not as exciting. Sorry! I think we've had just about enough excitement this month though.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, Daniel's pain is subsiding and it's looking like he might be released really soon. Maybe tomorrow morning! Daniel had one last procedure today and it went well. There is a well known heart doctor here at UVRMC who specializes in arrhythmia, and he did an electrical test on Daniel's heart today to see if a defibrillator would be necessary. The test ended a couple of hours ago, and it was determined that there is nothing wrong with the electrical elements of Daniel's heart. That means it was definitely the valve that caused all the problems in the first place and sent his heart into arrhythmia - not a combination of things. Daniel is now recovering from that last test and has to lay flat on his back and totally still for a few more hours. That is NOT going to be easy for him, but he's till somewhat sedated from the test, so hopefully he'll only have to make a concerted effort to hold still for the last hour or two.

This was actually a pretty serious procedure and the doctors had to go into some of Daniel's arteries and put cameras and things inside him to look for problems. This may add a few days to his recovery time. Poor guy, he's been poked and cut open so many times. They finally stopped checking his blood sugar yesterday, but that's been 3 weeks of finger pricks twice a day. His fingers won't bleed for the nurses anymore! And it took 8 tries to get his IV in last night for today's test. He's never going to want to see another needle in his life when he finishes this! :)

He's not completely out of the wood - the doctors are going to want to continue to observe him for a while until he's cleared to go home to Texas. He will be receiving out patient care for at least another week maybe two before he and my mom make that trip back. But all of his recovery has been way ahead of schedule so far, so who knows when they will actually let him go!

PS- his pink phone broke yesterday..we don't know what happened but none of the buttons will respond, so he can't read his texts or answer calls. Sorry! He's not ignoring you! He's been very specific during this ordeal that he will NOT be keeping that pink phone, so we're working on getting him another one tomorrow. Just contact him on facebook for now. Thanks everyone!!

He's BORED! :)

Well, as the doctors predicted, Daniel is feeling significantly better now. The pain is subsiding, but he still has to hang out here in the hospital for several more days. He has been moved out of the ICU now - and is back on the cardiac rehab floor. He has mentioned that he would love visitors again to help him get through the dull daily routine. He's got his phone again too, so feel free to contact him

The doctors are very positive and say that Daniel is recovery very well. He will have to have a few more tests- but we are hoping for release from the hospital some time next week. Sorry there isn't much to update...

Not much news...

I've gotten lots of questions the last couple of days, sorry there hasn't been a blog post - there just isn't much to report. They are slowly letting him heal, taking out tubes every once in a while or a bandage off. Daniel is in an incredible amount of pain and is just having a hard time getting comfortable anywhere. This whole thing is pretty frustrating for him, and like everything else in this seemingly endless process, he just needs more time.

We're trying to make him as comfortable as possible, and we were able to get some non-hospital food in to him today. :) But the little pleasures don't do much against the overwhelming bleh that he feels. He sleeps a lot and his phone has been off, so if you're trying to contact him you might not hear back. Sorry!

Give me a couple more days and maybe I'll have a more pleasant update. Keep praying - this isn't the hardest part for the rest of us, but so far it's been the hardest part by him for far. Thanks everyone!

It worked!

Well, after several hours of surgery, the doctor came back and let us know that he had finished everything. He said that the surgery went absolutely perfectly, and that there were no complications! The doctor was very pleased with the valve he selected to use, and said that it fit great with Daniel's heart. When they started pumping blood into his heart again, the heart started right up, it didn't have to be shocked or anything! Daniel watched the movie John Q. the other night, and in the end of the movie, it shows the little boy getting a heat transplant. Once the heart is in place, the doctor thumps it, and it starts beating again. Daniel asked his doctor yesterday if they would thump his heart like that to get it started again - the doctor said "well...not exactly.." But today he jokingly said that we could tell Daniel that they thumped his heart. He actually said that Daniel's new valve is working so well, it looks like the Lord put it there himself. (He's a very humble man - so he wasn't bragging, he just meant it was working very naturally.)

The anesthesiologist came in and spoke with us after the surgery as well and said he had nothing to even tell us about the surgery because it went so smoothly - there wasn't even a blip in the entire operation.

Daniel is back up in the ICU now and he is NOT happy. They got his breathing tube out even before they let us go back there, so he looks better than he did the last time he entered the ICU, but he's pretty beat up. He's awake too. He's groggy, but he wishes he could just stay asleep for the next couple of weeks. He keeps asking them to put him back under. He is in so much pain. they keep wanting him to breathe and cough, but I can't imagine anything more painful right now. They gave him a giant red heart pillow to hug, and if he holds that to his chest when he coughs it is supposed to help. He doesn't believe them though and refuses to cough. My mom got to see him for a few minutes after surgery, but she's headed back to Texas for a while.

Daniel will have to stay in ICU for several day and then they will move him to rehab again to work on recovery. They said the next few days will be the most miserable. We're so glad that everything went so smoothly and that he's awake. Thank you (and Daniel thanks you) for all of your prayers!

Still waiting

No updates yet - they may be running a little behind. They took Daniel into prep at 6 this morning, and then at 9:30 they said that he was ready and hooked up to the heart lung bypass machine. The surgery itself takes several hours. We'll let everyone know when there is news.

Surgery Prep

Quick note to keep everyone updated - Daniel will go into surgery early tomorrow morning. They are starting some of his prep tonight. He has to be completely disinfected in the morning and he has to stop eating solid food now. Broth for dinner, yum! :) We're all getting a little antsy, but the success rate for these surgeries is more than 98%. They also said the surgery is a lot easier when it's the first time around, so those are good odds.

Daniel is entertaining himself and waiting for the big day. Friends have brought movies to him, and people have sent fun magazines as well. He's being a good sport about the whole thing and staying calm. He's also had lots of friends in to visit and keep him entertained. The nurses said he's been keeping the floor up pretty late at night - Daniel is the youngest patient up here in cardiac rehab by at least 35 years, so his bed time is significantly later than everyone else. We'd like to ask that visitors tonight not stay past 8:30. The doctors will need access to him and we want him to get a good night's sleep tonight. - We hate to put that restriction there, he loves seeing all you guys...he just loves it a little too much, ha ha.

Thanks for all your prayers and support! We need every single one of those prayers. And Daniel is loving all of his mail and treats - if he weren't having heart surgery I would say he's spoiled, ha ha. We'll update the blog tomorrow with details of the surgery. It won't be finished til about 1:00pm, so look for it around then. Thanks everyone!

The Miracle Kid

Sorry I haven't done an update for a while. Daniel took care of it for us yesterday though, ha ha. I hope you all got a kick out of that. Daniel is doing great, and they have moved him into a room in rehab to start trying to get him strong again. He'll need to be strong and healthy within the next few days, because he is going to have to have open heart surgery. The doctors think they will probably do it on Tuesday. After some diagnostic tests, they discovered that Daniel's bicuspid valve (the one they have always worried about) gets tighter and tighter as his heart rate goes up. When his heart rate gets to a certain point, it closes off almost completely. This valve is going to have to be replaced. (Well, unless Daniel agrees to keep his heart rate low for the rest of his life ha ha - yeah right! he wants to play ball NOW). This is really major surgery and will require major recovery, but after the procedure is finished Daniel should be able to return to a normal lifestyle. We first thought he would just be getting a defibrillator implanted, so this is a little more drastic, but we're glad they have found the problem and are able to fix it. This surgery is actually a fairly common one, and there are rarely any complications. There is a great surgeon we have been talking to who will take care of the operation. We feel like Daniel is in really good hands and that the Lord is watching out for him.

When the surgeon came in to talk to Daniel, he explained all of the options that Daniel would have for this surgery. He told Daniel that he can have a mechanical valve which will never wear out, but the downside is he would have to be on a blood thinner his whole life, which is not ideal for someone as active as Daniel. The doctor said the other options were a pig valve or a human valve. He said the upside of having a valve like this would be that he wouldn't have to take blood thinners. Daniel broke in and told him "the downside is that I would be part pig." Ha ha.

He is starting to really get antsy here in his hospital bed. When they were transferring him to his new room, he pushed his wheelchair there instead of letting them push him. He also found an adult diaper in the ICU room, and put it on over his pants. He wore it the whole way over here to the new room. He got pictures of it on his cell phone too, so someday you can all ask him to see those. :) Daniel has been using his cell phone quite a bit again, but he prefers texting to talking - always has. We did bump him up to unlimited texts for this month (for those of you worried about wasting them from one of the previous stories) and he would love to hear from his friends, so go ahead and say hi! He's back on his facebook account too, so you can send him messages there. I'm forwarding letters and messages I've already gotten. He is SO bored right now! And they took him off the medication that makes him act like he's drunk - so he can't even entertain himself, ha ha. Now he's a little more cranky, and I don't really blame him! He sure does perk up for all of those pretty nurses though. :)

Like my mom said in her post, one of the cardiac specialist who has been working with Daniel stated that he had a 1% chance of survival from this incident. I don't think even we knew quite how serious this whole thing was until he said that. But we know that it was a miracle. All the nurses here call him the 'miracle kid' and are amazed by his story and recovery. So are we! Yeah for miracles!

somtiems life is a pain

so i almost died playing basketball. i cant think of a better way to die. unless i just dunked on someone that ireally hated anf then died so that thy couldnt ge me back. thanks to all those have showed love and care. you guys make worth stayng alvie for. and the hot nurses that i have seen here. had one named kandace. SMOKIN`!!! i got her to hold my hand while they drew boold; brillaint. thay always fall fo the sick kid routine. other than that not much is goin on. i have to

have open hert surgery soon to replace a crappy valve that has always sucked. o well it should be good now. you guys rule keep it real .


DIRTY

Mom's updates

Finally, Daniel slept through the night. For the past two nights he was fidgety and anxious and only slept 3 hours each night. He is very alert and really wants to leave the hospital. Last night he slept through the night so he should feel much better today. He is constantly asking if he can go play basketball :-( Daniel will probably move out of the ICU soon and maybe into REHAB. The details are still being discussed because his many Docs are still trying to determine what caused the cardiac arrest and how to prevent it from happening again. One of his heart docs said that the number of people who experience the type of cardiac arrest and lack of oxygen/blood flow to brain like Daniel had, and survive - one percent! Only by the grace of God is he alive right now. Some days I think there are medical personnel who come by just to see what type of person he is that he survived those odds. And he is loving the audience and entertains them all. It is a good thing he won't be remembering his outrageous comments. The strides he is making continue to amaze everyone. He has a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, physical therapist, dietitian, etc, as well as a lung doctor, brain doctor, and multiple types of heart doctors. They each have seen progress each day he has been in ICU. His pneumonia is almost cleared. There will be more tests run in the next couple of days to check brain swelling and heart issues. All of his doctors and nurses and medical personnel are top notch and we are so grateful for their service to Daniel. He is in a very good place for such a bad thing to happen. We continue to have faith and trust that God is in charge and has a plan for Daniel's life. Otherwise he wouldn't still be with us. The paramedics who saved Daniel's life came by the hospital the other day, to see how he was doing. They were amazed at his progress. It was an emotional moment for me, to meet total strangers who did all they could to save Daniel's life and quality of life. They were very happy to see him and promised to come back. I hope they do, so Daniel can remember them. ~Rochele

Tuesday/ Wednesday

Well, it has been an exhausting couple of days. I have been trying my best to balance work and Daniel, but it's hard for me to want to do anything to be here. Daniel is a HANDFUL. He's become even more aware and very articulate. Because of that, he has also become aware of the fact that he is in a bed and not allowed to leave. He hates all of his tubes, and complained about each one so much yesterday, that he finally got his way and they almost all came out. They took out the artery line that was in his arm, as well as his feeding tube. He also hated the oxygen tubes in his nose, and kept showing the nurses that he could breathe on his own by taking huge breaths. He grinned really big each time they took one out. He's fighting us now on the heart monitor and the IV going into his neck, but those aren't going anywhere no matter what.

Daniel also wants to get out of bed. Yesterday the physical therapists were just starting to work on having him sit up on the edge of his bed, so he was not ready to stand. His legs were weak and he needed to start slowly, but that really wasn't stopping him. There were several times where mom and I had to physically keep him in the bed because he was so determined to get up. Today he tried walking. The nurses have taken him out and around the halls a couple of times. It wears him out, but he's pretty good at it. Unfortunately, now he thinks he can leave the hospital, ha ha. He keeps asking for his jeans and his shoes because he's ready to go. At this point he's just doing it to tease us, because he knows full well that he's not going anywhere. He can even quote our speech in a mocking voice "blah blah blah, you have to stay here, blah blah blah they have to make you better so you can play basket ball. Well I DON"T WANT TO!" He wants to go back to his apartment and play video games because the hospital is boring. He told us if we take him home, then he will come back in the morning, he promises. :)

He's eating solid food now, but he's discovering that the feeding tube might have been a little more nutritious, because hospital food is gross! For his first meal he got pureed chicken, liquefied green beans, and mashed potatoes. The also brought some yogurt. He was struggling with his spoon, but he really really wanted that yogurt. I tried to help him eat it, but I guess I was going to slow, because all of a sudden he grabbed the yogurt and the spoon from me, held it right under his mouth and started shoveling it in. Between shovels he managed to say 'too slow'.

Somebody suggested that we bring him his ipod, and I found it amongst the belongings he had at the gym. It's been helping him quite a bit! He really likes falling asleep to the music.

Yesterday he was quoting a movie that I did not know, so I switched the subject to SNL skits. We both thought the Justin Timberlake one with Beyonce was hilarious so I brought that up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBC7pilGoPc He immediately said "we're the dancers" and ran his fingers across his face. He started dancing by pumping his hands up and down and throwing his head back like they do in the video and singing 'single ladies, single ladies' It was so hilarious! When the occupational therapist came in, he said 'wanna see me dance?' and he did the dance for her too. He kept it up for about half an hour, because it was making me laugh so hard!

The occupational therapist is having him use this huge rubber band to get his muscle strength back. It's like one of the ones that they give all the missionaries in the MTC. She told him he could keep it and use it about 3 times a day, if he promised not to snap anyone with it. What do you know, two hours later mom gave the thing back to him, and he snapped me with it! He was grinning so big. He tried a couple more times. Now he's only allowed to use it when I'm not there.

You'll all be glad to know that he can now identify the sprinkler head in the ceiling as a sprinkler head. We told him that he has been convinced it's a cockroach for a couple of days, and he wouldn't believe us. We're having a great time telling him all the things that he's been doing! He thinks he's hilarious! The doctors explained that one of the seizure medications would make him talk very slowly, and another one would make him act like he was drunk. They tapered him off of the first one, so his voice came back very clearly today! We could understand everything he said and that was great. The drunk one ends tonight, but boy did we see the effects of that today! He was still flirting with nurses and wanting to call random people on the phone. He kept telling me "I'm in such a goofy mood!"

Daniel is also being very sweet and telling us how much he loves us. He also wants to share all of his meals with us, and he thanks us for everything. He is very nice to all of his doctors too - learns all of their names, shakes their hands, and says thank you when they leave. My mom is hoping that the great manners stick around :)

The doctors started to focus his treatment today on diagnosing the circumstances that lead to his heart arresting instead of on the condition of his brain. They will be doing several test to try and determine what exactly it was that made his heart stop. No matter what they figure out, he will still be getting an implant. They said it will just be the icing on the cake if they can pin point this.

Daniel enjoyed all the letters he's gotten so far! He still gets confused about why his friends are texting my phone or writing him e-mails in my account, but we keep explaining that you are all worried about him and he's been asleep for too long. He even made me read some of the blog to him today, and he really liked hearing the stories all about himself. Keep the letters coming! It sure is helping him to remember things.

We really are seeing miracles in Daniel's recovery. Some of the nurses that were with him when he was in his coma have seen him in the last couple of days, and they are totally amazed! He's passing all of his tests really well. He's not even close yet, but we know this is going to be a really long process. We're SO happy with his progress so far. I don't know how to end these entries very well - so I'll just say I had a great day with my brother and thanks for everything!

A note from Mom

From the Mom's point of view:

From reading Rebecca's wonderful entries, I appreciate the service she continues to give her brother. I know many friends and family members are following the story and are praying for Daniel. Thanks to all of you, even people who don't know us, who pray for his recovery. Even though it sounds in the blog entries that Daniel is making lots of progress, we have a very long way to go. Let me describe his room in the Intensive Care Unit: It is small, filled with a bed and many many machines and monitors. When I am in his room with a nurse and a doctor, we feel crowded. Daniel has many medications dripping into his multiple tubes, but we are seeing fewer meds each day. Daniel has his head elevated because of the feeding tube--if laying flat he might easily choke and get some fluid into his lungs. The pneumonia he is fighting appears to be from fluids aspirated into his lungs when he had the heart attack, so no chances can be taken to have that happen again. He is responding to antibiotics so we are hopeful the pneumonia is clearing. In addition to concerns with Daniel's heart, the main problem being addressed right now is possible brain damage. Through the myriad tests that have been run, there appears to be no permanent damage (one of many miracles), but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a struggle ahead. His brain did swell from lack of oxygen during the ordeal, and the swelling has caused some problems. His speech and behavior appear like someone who has had a stroke. His mind is very sharp and we can make each other laugh, but he is very hard to understand, as if his tongue is too thick. He gets frustrated when we have to ask him to repeat his words. He does best in the mornings when he has rested at night. Last night he got a full eight hours of sleep, and he was quite a character this morning! But as the afternoon drug on, he got more tired and I could tell he wasn't feeling well. His speech was very difficult to understand. He spiked another fever and the nurse had to give him some tylenol. I hope he is resting now. Rebecca is with him. This is the first break I have had since 7:00 AM (It is now 5:00 PM). Because he is being brought down from some meds that have kept him sedated, he cannot be alone at all. He is very agitated, but also alert and very aware of his surroundings. Those are not an easy combination for a caregiver. He wants to get up--he is sick of being in bed. He is tired of all the tubes and has decided to take them out by himself. He is very strong, and it is hard for me to keep him still. We finally untied his restrained arms today because he hated it so much. He was able to turn on his side and sleep for a while, until he had to be awakened for another test. He did well on this one, which was checking to see if he could have the feeding tube removed and eat normal food. He got his first foods--orange juice and tapioca. He will probably get the tube removed tomorrow. Yaay! Daniel has so many doctors, and they all work with teams of doctors in their own practices, so it is hard to keep them all straight. But most of the doctors came in this morning to check on him and said that they are astonished at the progress he has made considering what state he was in when he arrived at the hospital.(More miracle evidence!) But the Doctors did all temper their comments with reminders that he has a long way to go before he returns to life as he knew it one week ago. Rebecca has mentioned that his short term memory is a problem. He asks again and again what happened and why he is in the hospital. But he can remember things from many years ago. We pray there was no brain damage, but even the swelling will take a long time to heal and can cause frustrating behaviors for him. One of my brothers was in a bad car accident in high school, and had brain trauma. I spent enough time with him in ICU to know what to expect when Daniel starts healing--some really bad language, asking the same questions over and over, and difficulty speaking. A cardiologist did tell me this morning that he treated another case very similar to Daniel's heart attack a year ago, only with an 18 year old college student. That student recovered fully with time and we are hopeful of that same thing for Daniel. He was really being ornery and difficult with me for part of the day, but then he turned around and told me he loved me and apologized for having a heart attack. Every doctor or nurse who came in today--he would tell them thank you when they were leaving. Even though it took him a while to say it. Yaay! Manners survived the injury! Since Daniel's dad and younger sisters went back to Texas, and Rebecca is back at work during the day, things have changed a bit as far as my hospital schedule. I am required to be with Daniel full time. Because he is in ICU he is not supposed to have any visitors except immediate family, for several reasons--to prevent spreading of germs among critically ill patients, to limit stimulation that might make resting/healing more slow, and to allow patients privacy during a very difficult time when doctors and nurses must be able to get into those very small rooms in a big hurry. Because I have to stay with him, and I need to talk with doctors when they show up in his room (no clear schedule) I am unable to greet visitors in the lobby. The only time I am in the lobby is probably between 5-7:00 PM, during nurse's shift change. If you desire to contact Daniel, cards and letters will be read to him, or please post messages on this blog, or send a message to Rebecca's facebook. Thanks for your continual prayers and support for Daniel and our family. There is too much evidence to ever doubt that God watches over his children and answers prayers. We know the struggle may be long for Daniel, but God knows who Daniel is and has preserved his life at this time. ~Rochele Dunford

Monday night/ Tuesday morning.

Well, it's down to me and mom now, because the rest of the family had to go home. We were sad they had to go, but I was so happy that they got to talk to Daniel before he left. Unfortunately, he doesn't so much remember that right now - because we figured out he has short term memory loss. We started to notice that right about the 10th time we told him his heart stopped... He keeps asking what happened to him and why he's in the hospital. The doctors say this is completely normal and that it will probably get better. He actually can't remember some things from a few days before this whole thing happened. For instance, he dropped his phone in a puddle last Monday and it died a noble death. He took my old phone as a loaner, and switched his number to that because it works on the same network. Unfortunately, my old phone is pink. I showed it to him today, and he very slowly told me "that's not my phone!" I tried to tell him the story, but he didn't believe me. :) He still has his long term memories though.

Last night Daniel had this great nurse named Ryan with a sense of humor similar to Daniel's. He told Daniel that he would send some of the cute blonde nurses past Daniel's window so that he could check them out. Daniel gave him a thumbs up and said 'deal!' Then there was a nurse taking care of him today, and he asked her if she had a boyfriend!. Ha ha. She said she was married, but that she has cute sisters Daniel can meet.

He also found the sprinkler head on the ceiling in his room, and he is convinced that it is a cockroach. It took us forever to figure out that he was saying cockroach, but once we did we spent about 10 minutes trying to convince him that it wasn't one. Then the nurse walked in, and instead of saying that it wasn't a cockroach, he told Daniel "well, i guess we'll leave that cockroach alone if he doesn't come any closer" Daniel looked at us like "see! I told you there was a cockroach!" He found it again this morning and told us that there was a freaking huge bug right there on the ceiling (okay, he may have been a little more colorful than that, but there are mothers out there reading this :) and no, not THAT colorful.) It made us laugh, so he kept reminding us about the huge bug there.

Last night he asked his nurse if he could watch TV. I was confused until Daniel pointed at a TV that I hadn't even noticed was in his room. We turned on some ESPN for him and he smiled really big. This morning when he was watching TV, President Obama was on. My mom said 'Look, it's president Obama!" and Daniel raised his fist up and said "black power". Ha ha ha.

He's getting really frustrated with all of his tubes, and every chance he gets he tries to pull them out, but we're keeping a close eye on him... and we keep tying his restraints closer to the bed. They are going to do a feeding test with him today to see if he can swallow well enough to get the feeding tube out. That will make him feel better.

Daniel got a pair of basketball shoes a few months ago called Air Penny's. I don't know if anyone remembers the commercials for them in the early 90's, but Daniel sure does. They had a little marionette version of Penny Hardaway called 'li'l penny'. He got a version of little Penny for Christmas, and he just loves the thing! Daniel's roommate brought the thing (I hate to call it a doll) by the hospital, and Daniel keeps asking to hold it. Then he mumbles something about donuts and loafers. Then we remembered the commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzYW-6EF99M . We watched that with him on YouTube and now we quote it with him :)

Due to Daniel's short term memory loss, we have been told that we can hang up some things in his room that will bring back memories. We've got a few pics and a cute sign that some friends made, but we would like to do more. If you all have any ideas of things that Daniel would really like to have around him, or that would be special to him, let us know. Some people have written letters to him, and we read those out loud. Since he can't remember it 5 minutes later, we can actually read it multiple times. The letters make him smile. If you'd like to send a special picture or something, email me and I will send you my home address. I live about 3 minutes from the hospital, so that will be easier than sending it to the hospital.

Thanks for the support and prayers! keep it up, he's making so much progress!

He made us laugh!

I don't want to leave Daniel for long, but he's talking! He can't do it very well, he's sooo groggy, but he's trying! He's in good spirits, and we've been trying to make him rest, but he wanted us to stay. We are still trying to make him laugh, but he turned the tables on us. We told him that he had a nice window view and it was too bad that he couldn't look out of it (his bed is facing the other way) and he told us "that's so sad" and then he laughed. We laughed really hard, and then he said "I'm so funny."

We were explaining what happened and what all of the tubes were for (we were trying to convince him not to pull them out) and we pointed out the 'food' going into his feeding tube. It's this gross mustard yellow mush. He looked up at it and said 'yyyuuuummmmyyy' and smiled again. He's done several other jokes for us and we just can't be any happier!! He's gonna be himself again someday!

He's still moving very slowly, so he's not quite his normal self. Don't expect that when he's allowed to have visitors, but it seems like his mind is there.

He SMILED!!

The stopped the sedation after they took out the tube. They don't think he's going to fight as much if the tube isn't in. He's still got a breathing mask on, but he is breathing completely on his own. His throat is going to hurt for a long time because of the tubes. But he opened his eyes and he is looking at all of us. He's moving his head toward whoever is talking to him. We tried to get him to answer some yes or no questions, and he can nod and shake his head.

It's hard to keep the one sided conversation going, but we find lots of things to tell him about. My mom was joking about my dad's long eyebrows (a long time family joke) and we told him that we were going to trim them while dad was sleeping, but we were afraid that Daniel wouldn't recognize dad when he woke up - and Daniel SMILED! he got this big grin on his face under the breathing mask. It was the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Daniel still looks miserable and we know he's in a lot of pain, but we're glad that we're here to comfort him and that he can wake up and see the whole family. We can't wait until he's out of ICU and can see everyone!

The tube is out!

This is a short post, but my dad just sent us a text from Daniel's room, and they have taken his breathing tube out! Yeah! Now maybe he can talk to us a tiny bit when they take him off the sedation! That must mean that the respiratory therapist is confident that he can breathe on his own too!

Long Term

We are all really excited about Daniels progress and his recovery is becoming more and more likely. He really could have died this week. However we want everyone to understand that Daniel isn't going to wake up tomorrow and walk away from this. Even though there is no evidence of major brain damage from the tests, Daniel's responses have taken longer than hoped for. The neurologist has explained several times that Daniel's brain is like a bruised muscle - but when a muscle gets bruised it takes 2 to 3 weeks to heal completely, where Daniel might take 2 to 3 years. We just don't know

We do know that we are looking at a very long hospital stay. He might be here in the ICU for weeks. There is a very high likelihood that Daniel will have to have an implant in his heart. The implant would be a great thing, and really wouldn't limit him too much, but he might have to be more careful from now on. Now that this has happened, there is a much higher chance that it could happen to him again. Daniel will be withdrawn from school this semester, and when he's ready will be returning home to Texas, and he probably won't be playing basketball again anytime soon.

We really don't know everything about the future, (we can't even guess about tomorrow) but we know this will all take a long time. Daniel is a fighter though and he could surprise us all. Keep praying!

Monday Morning

So the doctors have explained to us that they are going to try and keep Daniel sedated for the majority of the days until they can get all the tubes out of him. However, once or twice a day they will stop the sedative and see if he wakes up or if he responds. They like to do this in the mornings. This was why Daniel was responsive yesterday morning. My dad was here all night, and at about 7:00 am Daniel came off of the sedation and started to respond really well. My dad asked him to open his eyes and he could! He still can't focus very well, but the fact that he can open them on request is amazing! Dad asked him to squeeze his hands and wiggle his toes, and he was able to do that as well. I got here a little while later and he was still doing great! I was able to talk to him a lot! Again, he can't focus his eyes, but he is turning his head toward whoever is talking to him and he is trying SO hard.

The doctors have also diagnosed with pneumonia, so he's coughing a lot. This is hard with the tube down his throat, and they have to constantly suction out the tubes. The suctioning makes him really really uncomfortable, and this morning he was doing everything that he could to gag the tube out of his throat. The nurses think that is really positive and that maybe they can take the tube out in the next couple of days. Whenever he fights against the tube though, the sedate him again. My mom and sisters got here right after the sedation had gone up, so he was really struggling to stay awake, but they got to see him open his eyes and wiggle his toes too just a little. After a few minutes the nurse said we should leave and let him rest and he couldn't really open his eyes anymore so we said some goodbyes. My mom said "Daniel, I just wanted to let you know, the Steelers won. " His eyes popped open again! So she kept telling him "The poor Cardinals, their losing streak continues. And the Mavericks are really bad, so you're not missing anything there." He opened his eyes a second time on the Mavericks comment. Then we left before the nurse got us in trouble. Ha ha. But we're really excited about the progress!

My dad and sisters are flying home to Dallas today, so we asked the nurse if he could be off the sedation one more time, and she said she'll take him off before they all leave. He can't talk to us with all the tubes down his throat, but we like just talking to him with his eyes open.

Yesterday and today he's been breathing on his own. He is still hooked up to the machine, and they let him breathe on his own for a few hours, and then let him rest and have the machine do it for a few hours. He was doing really really well, but there were a couple incidents of apnea (he stopped breathing completely) but they think that might be a combination of his seizure medications, and he's being taken off of one of those.

Daniel's MRI from late Saturday night show great improvement from the MRI before that. They told us that the first MRI was great, so we weren't expecting improvement, we were just wanting them to say that there was not damage from oxygen deprivation, but they said that his brain had been swollen in the first test, and in the second one the swelling was significantly reduced.

The respiratory therapist said last night that he is astounded at Danie's progress!

We know that the fasting and prayers and love of everyone who cares about Daniel are REALLY helping. Look at how well he's doing! Our family is so thankful for all of the support. Please keep it up, he's not out of the woods yet.

This Picture

So I just wanted to explain this picture and why we love it so much. It says a lot about the way Daniel is. We were doing sibling pics at my wedding, and Daniel said we should all do his signature 'look into the distance' pose. We thought that would be hilarious, so he got all three of us ready, and right before the photographer snapped the picture he turned his head straight at the camera and flashed that big smile. When we realized what happened it took a while for us to stop laughing enough to take another picture.

Another good story we've all been laughing about happened on Wednesday afternoon right before all of this happened. Our family has been rearranging out cell phone plans. I left the plan, and Daniel moved into my spot on our family plan, meaning he went from unlimited texts to 1000 per month. My mom sent him a text to tell him that and his prompt reply was 'Well thanks for wasting one of them!"

Our family is heartsick over this entire thing and all we want is Daniel back the way he was, but the way we are coping is definitely with humor. When we go in the room and talk to Daniel (hoping that he can hear us) we like to tease him about his dress and sing annoying songs to him. Then we all giggle and the nurses think that we are crazy. Daniel wouldn't like us to be miserable, so we try to mix the crying with laughter and trying to guess what Daniel will be grouchiest about when he wakes up. It might be his favorite pair of basketball shorts that got cut off of him, or it might be that they made him stay cold for 24 whole hours (he HATES being cold). So don't think that we are totally callused. We are coping and we are just glad that he is alive!

If you have an stories about Daniel that you want to share, you can email them to me at rebecca.dunford@gmail.com. I'll post them!

Sunday Morning

Just wanted to let everyone know that Daniel has opened his eyes several times. He cannot focus them yet, but they are opening. They have also had to restrain his arms because he is fighting and trying to pull out his tubes! These are all great signs and we know that the fasting and prayers are working.

We had kind of a scare last night because Daniel went down for a second MRI. When the were transferring him from the MRI table to his bed, he had another Seizure. It lasted for 2 or 3 minutes. The neurologist was notified, and he was placed on a third anti seizure medication.

His temperature is down quite a bit to a normal temp, and they don't even have ice bags under his arms anymore, so that means the antibiotics are working.

We are really hoping that today is the day that Daniel wakes up.

PS - the MRI last night still didn't show any areas that were negatively effected by loss of oxygen. This is AMAZING!

Fasting

Our family is going to hold a fast for Daniel tomorrow. We would like to invite everyone to fast with us for Daniel's recovery. We know that the Lord is listening to all the prayers on Daniels behalf, and we know that fasting works. Every prayer helps!

Progress Today!

Daniel started moving this morning!! He's not doing it too often, but we've found that when the nurses or doctors start messing with him, like suctioning his mouth, he will squirm! He's even attempted to open his eyes a few times. He will stretch out as well, which is a good sign because we've seen him move all of his limbs. The best is definitely the suctioning though, because he makes this face like someone has put the most horrible tasting thing in the world into his mouth and he starts to squirm a lot. He got another big dose of the anti seizure medicine today and the fidgeting slowed down after that, but the neurologist decided that we can lower his dosage tomorrow. That should let him wake up and move some more. He is swallowing and coughing on his own as well. These are all great signs that he is fighting and could make a great recovery!

He is getting another EEG right now and will get another MRI starting at 7:00 pm. We'll have the results of that tomorrow.

My mom and sisters arrived this morning, so we are all here together.

Concerns

All of Daniel's tests are looking really good and the doctors are positive. There is nothing conclusive about what caused his heart to arrest. Right now the doctors just want Daniel to wake up, and then we will know more.

For a short time yesterday Daniel was initiating his own breaths and overriding the ventilator. This was after they took him off of all the sedative. He later went back to letting the machine do all of the work. The doctors are planning on weaning him off of the ventilator soon.

The major concern was that when Daniel was off of his sedatives yesterday, not only did he not wake up, but he was not responsive to things like pain. He stayed still and did not fight back or seem uncomfortable with the breathing tube. The nurses have explained that even when someone is sedated their body should react to some of those things.

On Friday they determined that they should give Daniel a very high dose of his anti seizure medication to bring him up to therapeutic levels. This medication sedated him again. He is still taking high doses of this.

Late Friday night, the doctors decided to take Daniel for an MRV. This test is very much like an MRI, but they were focusing specifically on the area of his brain between the two lobes and the blood flow there. The results for this test were good as well. They said that they could not see anything of concern.

Right before they took Daniel for his MRV, the nurses said that he tried to open his eyes a little. They also had to take some of the sticky pads off of his check to do the MRV and he reacted to the pain of the pulled hair when they did that. He was not reacting to pain on his extremities though. Then they had to give him a paralytic to freeze his muscles for the MRV, and that stopped any possible motion again.

They told us that we would need to wait until Saturday Morning to see anything.

Anna's Note

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Yesterday at 5:19pm
Some of you may know, there's been a traumatic happening in our family, and so no one is left wondering, here's the story. (Sorry to those of you i didn't tell face to face, but there's no way i would have been able to talk about it at school.)Wednesday night, my brother collapsed while playing basketball and went a long time without oxygen, probably ten minutes or more. Luckily he was taken to the hospital and almost immediately was treated. After numerous tests there doesn't seem to be any brain damage, which is a miracle sent straight from God himself. Thanks to all of those who have been praying and fasting for Daniel. But he is still in critical condition, because brain damage can still register up to 72 hours after oxygen depletion. He was breathing by himself for awhile but had to be sedated heavily for more tests. Right now we can only wait to see what happens next, what condition he's really in, and what direction the Lord leads Daniel's life. I want all of you to know that whatever happens, if Daniel's abilities are no longer needed on earth but beyond the veil, I am so thankful that i am sealed to him for eternity through priesthood power. Families are forever, and what a blessing that is. Daniel is the best brother anyone can have, and he has touched so many people's lives in marvelous ways. If his time isn't over, I will be more indebted to Heavenly Father than I already am. Through all the tears and endless waiting at this point, I truly feel peaceful, first of all because of the reassurance that there is reason to the madness, and because the Holy Spirit has been my constant companion to calm me.This morning I happened upon this scripture (not a coincidence).John 14: 16-17, 27"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.""Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."Thank you to all who've helped our family; it is so appreciated. Please continue to pray- it will be heard. (sorry i reached my tag limit :( )-Anna

Sykler's note

Daniel
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Yesterday at 6:24pm
I'm copying Anna by doing this, but it was a great idea, and between us hopefully more of our friends won't feel like we didn't tell them. I apologize if I didn't tell you this face to face, but this is hard for me to discuss in person. Our family has gone through a bit of a shock this week. After two peaceful days off of school, I was awakened at 3:30 A.M. by my mother and told we were going to have a family meeting in her room immediately. She informed Anna and me that our dear brother Daniel's heart had stopped earlier that night while playing basketball. No one was with him when it happened, and he collapsed and went without oxygen for ten minutes or more. Luckily, he was soon discovered and sent to the care of an intensive care unit. Since no one knows how long Daniel went without oxygen, we are not sure whether or not he has significant brain damage. We do know, however, that he began seizing that night and that he is now under heavy sedation to prevent any more seizures. After a few tests, the doctors have informed us that it appears Daniel has not retained any major brain damage, which makes us all feel better. However, Daniel is still in critical condition. Though the first tests have informed us that his brain seems to be fine, brain damage from oxygen depletion can continue to appear for up to another 72 hours. He has yet to awaken, but he has been breathing on his own at one point today (he had to be put back on respirators because of the heavy sedatives). Whether or not Daniel is meant to continue his life on this earth, I cannot tell you at this point. I am, however, thankful for the knowledge that my family is sealed for time and all eternity, and not even the jaws of death can change that. I love my brother very dearly. He's always been there for me, and now I want to be there for him. Even if he does not live, I know that I will see him again and that our family will be reunited. Through all the chaos and pandemonium of the past few days, I have been able to feel peace I did not think possible to feel under such circumstances. I know that it is the Spirit that is comforting our family, and I witness that my Savior loves me and knows exactly what I am going through at the moment. I can't thank all of you that have been praying and helping our family out, for it continues to add to the sense of peace. We're so grateful to know that we have so many good friends. This morning at seminary, I came across these scriptures [Not a coincidence. I know Anna came across the same ones. That was also not a coincidence.] John 14:16-17"16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."I thank you again for your prayers and kindness, though no words can express our appreciation. I know this is in the Lord's hands and the outcome will be what is best, though I may not understand it at this time. I know that he lives and loves each and every one of us.Isaiah 12:2"2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

Test Results

Daniel was taken to the ICU late Wednesday night, and he started displaying a behavior called 'posturing'. The cardiologist explained that the muscles in his arms and legs were contracted into a very odd and unnatural position. His toes were pointed forward and turned inward, and his hands curled in and turned back. The doctors explained that his was very very concerning, and a sign of serious brain damage. They told me that because this was happening, they were going to treat him as if there was damage. One thing that is proven to help patients in this situation is something called 'cooling' where they lower the patient's body temperature and keep it there for 24 hours. For some reason (they said it is very complicated to explain) this preserves some of Daniel's body functions while his brain is hurting. They wrapped him in cooling 'blankets' that ran cold water all over him. A normal core temperature is between 37 and 38 degrees C, and they wanted Daniel down at 33 degrees C.

Before they could start cooling Daniel, they did a CAT scan that showed no signs of head trauma. We sort of already knew that, because Daniel didn't fall, but that is great!

In order to get Daniel to hold completely still for the CAT scan, they administered a paralytic, which froze all of his skeletal muscles. This also stopped the posturing, and Daniel has not showed signs of posturing since. The doctors are very positive about that!

Daniel started on the cooling regime, and it took about 4 hours to get his body temperature that low. He was shivering a lot, and the nurses said that he was as cold as if they had thrown him out naked in the snow for a few days. Daniel hates being cold, so he had to have been grouchy about that! The shivering was concerning, and they tried to up his sedation levels to stop him from doing that, but it didn't work. They were mostly concerned that the shivering was actually seizing or seizure activity, so they placed Daniel on an anti seizure drug.

Dad flew in from Texas early Thursday morning.

They did an EEG on Daniel on Thursday morning. An EEG measures siezure activity in the brain. The EEG did show that their was seizure activity, so they added an anti seizure drug to his medications. At this point Danie's brain activity was very low because he was so cold.

We had quite a bit of waiting on Thursday, because the doctors wanted an MRI, but couldn't do it until Daniel was warm again. They did not expect Daniel to wake up on Thursday at all because he was so heavily sedated. They also couldn't take him off of the cooling system until he had been cold for 24 hours, so he couldn't start warming himself up until 6:00 am Friday morning.

Friday morning they took the cooling blankets off, and Daniel warmed up within a few hours. He actually got too warm because he developed a fever. They actually just found out that he has an infection in his lungs, but they have been treating him with antibiotics since last night.

They did an MRI as soon as Daniel was warm enough, and it showed no concerns. A member of Danie's bishopric is actually the radiologist who reads the MRI reports, and he brought in his partners so they could all 3 read the report and make sure that Daniel is getting the best treatment possible. The MRI would let us know if there was any damage to the brain from something like a stroke, or if there is swelling. They also said that the MRI could show if there was damage from oxygen loss. There was none that showed, but that kind of damage doesn't show for 3 days sometimes, so they will do another MRI on Sunday or Monday to look again. They might also do another MRI today (Saturday)

They did a second EEG on Friday, and that showed no signs of seizing, so they were very excited that the seizure medication is working. We were also told that the brain activity was very normal in the second EEG, except for the fact that every once in a while the activity will just stop for a little while.

We will post more information about his test after this.

What Happened

On Wednesday night (Jan 28) Daniel collapsed while playing basketball at the gym. The paramedics came and had to shock Daniel's heart to revive him. We have heard several versions of what happened that night, and they vary greatly. When the paramedics arrived, they were told that they had been called immediately after Daniel collapsed, and it took them less than 4 minutes to arrive. One story is that there was no CPR administered on site, another story says that there was. The amount of time that Daniel's brain was without oxygen also varies by a lot. It could be 2 minutes, it could be 10. The shorter the time the better. Doctors have told us that 10 minutes would indicate serious brain damage and less of a chance for recovery. All of the stories are the same on one point though, Daniel was already laying down when he stopped breathing, so we know that he did not hit his head.

Either way Daniel was resuscitated and brought to the ER at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center within a few minutes. I(Rebecca) met him here, and there has been someone with him ever since. In the ER he showed great signs by moving a lot and trying to fight the breathing tube. He was breathing on his own in the ER, but soon after, the ventilator took over for him. They sedated him pretty heavily to stop him from struggling against the treatment as well.

The cardiologist there in the ER that night explained that Daniel's heart went into a state called attriculation. That means that the electric pulse in his heart fired at the wrong time, and his heart sort of started to vibrate instead of pump. Thankfully the AED device was able to start his heart again.

Daniel has had a heart condition since he was born, and has been closely monitored by a cardiologist his entire life. His cardiologist has been very positive about the condition of his heart, so this is a big shock. Daniel is very active and healthy, and has plays basketball for hours every day and there has never been a problem before. The cardiologist never put any limits on his activities becuase his heart was so strong and healthy. She is just as shocked as the rest of us that this happened.