Day 10 - Occupational Therapy

Hi again!

As you can see, it was a less boring day for our Jimmy. These pictures are with the Occupational Therapist, Leana. She really worked him today! You can see how high he is now able to lift his left arm, and he is able to help himself roll and swing his legs off the side of the bed (with a little help). He sat for about 20 minutes by himself on the edge of the bed and was even able to stand for a little while. He also shuffled more steps to get back in bed. The guy to the left of the bottom picture cheering him on is Larry Rawn. I was SO proud of him, and he was SO exhausted! Jimmy is definitely getting stronger every day, and his motor skills are getting much more refined and controlled. I am so pleased to see this progress. The doctors did confirm that he did not have any vein occlusions, so he is expected to have no adverse effects from this surgery. Yay!!!

He also did his x-ray swallow evaluation this morning. He had to swallow different consistencies of barium -- yuck! He did surprisingly well. He only aspirated one time on the thin liquids, but did okay the other times. They want to take it slow, so they have him back on his thickened liquids and pureed foods. This means that he had his feeding tube
removed, so you will notice that he no longer has anything coming out of his nose. He was so happy to lose that annoying thing! He was able to have a 'real' lunch and dinner today. He didn't eat a lot because it takes so much effort, and he doesn't have much appetite yet. Besides, he's still trying to lose a few more pounds! I just want to make sure that he gets enough nutrition to keep his strength up, so I'll be watching him closely. I'm sure that before long he'll be complaining about the hospital food, but right now he's thinking it's not so bad. He had beef and cheddar (pureed) for dinner tonight ... he said it tasted just like Arby's!

Jim also got to have his catheter removed. Another biggie for him! Although, he didn't complain about it nearly as much as he did the last time he had surgery. I think he finally figured out that it was pretty convenient. It's always a nice feeling when they start removing tubes, so a pretty big day for our Jimmy!

Jim was pretty down today. I actually left him on his own for a couple of hours this morning because I didn't want to join his pity party. He apologized, but I could tell that he wasn't feeling his usual self. I talked to the nurse and found out that they were only giving him a third of his normal dosage of his anti-depressant, so they will correct that and, hopefully, get him back on track soon. He certainly had reason to be upbeat today, so it was easy to see that something wasn't quite right. That is a new project for me -- to get him fired up! Maybe if I borrow Lori Money's Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader
costume it would help, although I'm not sure I would fill it out as well as she does!

We did get a decision from the doctors tonight. They have decided to do the bypass and clip surgery. They feel that the pipeline stent is just too risky. I guess our 'pipeline gentleman' has suffered a pretty major stroke, and they just don't have enough confidence to go that route with Jim. I hope that you will all continue to pray for this brave gentleman, and that he can have a decent recovery over time. I would still like to meet him someday and be able to thank him for being a pioneer. I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed as I was really hoping that this option would work, but I definitely want the doctors to go with the option that they feel the most comfortable with. They are planning to take an artery out of Jim's forearm to use to create the bypass. They hope to create enough blood flow to the places where he needs it so that they can totally occlude the basilar artery where the aneurysm is with a clip. They may replace the partial clip that is already there, or they may just add another one right below it. This will cut off blood flow through that artery, and eventually the thrombosis (clotting) around the aneurysm should dissolve. That would take care of the pressure on the brainstem and, hopefully, permanently alleviate his symptoms.

Jim was really quiet and scared when he sent me home tonight. We both knew that more surgery was imminent and were anxious to know the what and when, but now that it is near, it's pretty unnerving. It feels a little bit futile to be celebrating removing all these tubes and upgrading from ICU when we know that he's going to have to go back and do it all over again -- but this is what we came here for. He needs to be fixed, and we have to trust that God will take care of us and help the doctors to do so. Dr. Spetzler will be doing the surgery, and he's the best! That's why we are here. We don't have the exact surgery date yet, but they are thinking either this week or the first part of next. I am expecting that we will be here another two to three weeks. This is going to be a very big and scary surgery (again), but Jim came through the first two really well, so I have every reason to believe he will continue to do so. There are risks of stroke and hemorraging, but they feel they are less than the risks would have been with using the pipeline stent. Based on Jim's amazing track record and the dream/near death experience he recently had, I have to believe that God is just not wanting to take him yet ... and that is what I am counting on!

We will deal with anything that God has in store for us, I just choose to believe for now that God knows what is in my heart and is on the same page with me -- he's had plenty of opportunity to take him away, so there's got to be a reason that Jim is still here with me and the kids. I truly do expect to come out of this with a new and improved Jimmy! Another quote from the men's Bible study book by Marlo Javidando (no idea who that is) that I am holding on to is, "Be strong, go with your heart, and believe in miracles because anything ... anything can happen." I said after the first surgery that it was a miracle that Jim survived; well, here we go getting ready for another one. Nobody can tell me that God doesn't do miracles anymore -- keep watching, and you will see!

So, we need to rejuvenate all the prayer chains. Please pass the word that we have a new route planned for this marathon, and we are hoping for a strong finish! Hope you can all keep up!

Prayerfully and with God's Blessings,
Krissy