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.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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!
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!
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.
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.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
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!
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!
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!
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