Monday

Dad had another sleepy day...heavily sedated, not much action. He was strong this morning with his oxygen but had some troubles later in the day and his levels dropped. Mom said only once did he barely open his eyes, and we are seeing no movement at all except for the right arm. They untied his arm for a short time today, but he again was trying to get his tubes out so they re-tethered him. It's so frustrating for mom to see because the one thing the poor guy can move is once again immovable. The nurses assure us that if he gets through this, he won't remember anything from his ICU stay, which calms us because it hurts to see him frustrated and in pain. At this point, his second spinal surgery will be tomorrow at 1:30pm. Much prayer is needed for this because his body is fragile and he will need to be on his stomach. The doctors moved him to a sitting position for an hour today, but his blood pressure and oxygen intake weren't great so they laid him back down. It needs to be said that he is still very critical...a few close friends who were able to see him today said they were shocked to see what condition he is in. Because of this we feel we should start including some pictures of him in the hospital so people can see how limited he is right now. We'll get some pictures on the blog sometime tomorrow. The boys had a good day at Genesis, both agreed it was the right thing to be there working all day. We shared some laughter as we were back together at the house late tonight, which is good for all of us. Dad leaves a huge hole when we are gathered together for a meal, but we have peace that God is working this for the good of our family. We know he is in the palm of God's hand, and we pray tonight that dad has some great conversations with Jesus. Pray for another uneventful night and that mom can get some quality sleep. And pray tomorrow for his afternoon surgery, it will be a rough couple of hours waiting for the results. Thanks again for loving our family and our Pops.