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Daily Progress 8/16 - 8/26
Daily Progress 8/27 - 9/2
Daily Progress 9/3 - 9/9
Daily Progress 9/10 - 9/18
Daily Progress 9/19 - 10/6
Daily Progress 10/7 -
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Monday 9/2
WE HAVE GREAT NEWS TONIGHT!!! Several of us walked into the hospital this evening as LeeAnn was excitedly tracking down a nurse to let them know that Dani lifted his RIGHT thumb!! She made him focus on his thumb then he moved it. She said he got a big smile on his face.
Dani was also moved to another room in the Pediatric ICU unit today. He is no longer in the critical care room.
Tomorrow is a big day for Dan. His ability to swallow will be checked. Hopefully he will be able to have the feeding tube removed. He will be fitted for headgear and he will be evaluated for rehabilitation.
Dani was playing catch with LeeAnn tonight. For the time being he is a left handed pitcher.
OHHH YEA THERE IS MORE BIG NEWS. He has been trying so hard to talk and today a couple of the nurses started giving him a dollar for every word he says. He made today ( were from LeeAnn). Aunt Jackie is going to try and negotiate his contract for a raise to per word. I think he's worth it how about you?
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Sunday 9/1
Sunday Evening 9/1
LeeAnn was told that they will probably be fitting Dan for headgear on Tuesday and it won't be long before he is sent to Harmarville for rehabilitation. We're thinking that it will probably be within the week.
Sunday 9/1
LAST NIGHT THE DRAIN WAS FINALLY REMOVED !!!!!
They first tried to removed the drain on Friday night but there was blood in the tube and the doctor felt that it was to soon and wanted the drain to remain for awhile. But to our Surprise, on Saturday they said it was nothing to be concerned with and they would still be removing it. Finally Saturday night the tube came out.
It is so wonderful to finally see Dani smiling. He also is remaining awake for longer periods of time throughout the day. He has even been sitting up in his bed and watching television. He still isn't able to speak or move his right arm and leg but we keep reassuring him that everything will be fine in time.
We have some updated pictures to post soon and just to let you in on the surprise, you'll get a peek at his "Thumbs Up".
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Friday 8/30
The drain still hasn't been removed but hopefully soon. The doctor has told LeeAnn and Aaron that as soon as the drain is removed Dani will be fitted with headgear and sent to rehabilitation. This is very exciting news because the sooner he starts rehabilitation the better. They have told LeeAnn that it is a very positive sign that Dani came out of the coma on his own.
As for the swelling they have said again that it will take some time for the swelling to go down.
The doctor also told them that Dani may struggle with recognizing people when he starts getting visitors so we will all need to be patient and help him know that it is o.k. so he does not get frustrated with himself and feel bad. (But he might surprise us all as he has continued to do the past two weeks.)
Wednesday 8/28
Well Dani has encountered a set back today. For some unknown reason his brain pressure spiked to a dangerous level of 35 during the night. They are not sure why but we are very thankful that the monitor was still in place so they were aware of the problem. They had to unclamp the drain to relieve the pressure.
Of course this has made him very tired and unresponsive today.
Please continue to pray for him and ask everyone you know to do the same. Thank You
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Thursday 8/28
Thursday 8/28 (another afternoon update)
Dani is perking up this afternoon. He has learned how to operate the bed. There are four buttons and he knows what each one does and can adjust the bed to his liking. He is also lifting and moving his head more.
Thursday 8/28
Today has been a rather uneventful day thus far, which we will take happily. He is tiring easier today but that is probably still due to the high brain pressure the night before last.
Last night around 10:00pm LeeAnn went into Dani's room after leaving for a short period of time to call the church. She found Dani slid off to the side of the bed and his head pressing against the railing of the bed. In a panic she was able to find help to get him back up in the middle of his bed. She was worried that this would cause harm to his brain since it is not protected. His nurse arrived and did not seem concerned she just added that a few minutes prior he had pulled out his feeding tube she found it laying on his stomach. (The feeding tube runs clear to his intestines, and he only has one moving arm that is to be tied and if his arm bends a monitor beeps.) Well, you can imagine this has LeeAnn very worried about how closely some of the staff is watching after him so she is planning on being with him as much as possible. Dr Forbes which was the doctor in the Pediatric ICU unit for the first week that Dani was in the hospital will be back on staff tomorrow. He was a tentative doctor and continually explained what Dani's status was to LeeAnn and Aaron. LeeAnn will be more at ease once he is back.
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Tuesday 8/27
Finally Jackie and I got to spend time with Dani having fun before LeeAnn wore him out. He kept taking my ring off and to my surprise he was able to put it back on my ring finger even making sure that the marquise was on facing the top of my hand. One of the times he removed it he even tried to hide it by his ear. He seemed to chuckle knowing he was being funny.
He indian wrestled with us showing us that his left hand is still as strong as ever or maybe I'm just a "wimp".
We were listening to some of his christian CD's talking about dancing and he lifted my hand and moved it around to the music.
It has been wonderful seeing small improvements everyday. Today he had another tube removed. This one was inserted into the right nostrel of his nose. It was used to suction the compressed air out of his stomach and the blood when the ulcer was acting up. (By the way for those of you wondering, he didn't have an ulcer prior to coming into the hospital. We were surprised how fast one could develop.)
On a serious note, we feel that it is time to make sure everyone is aware of Dani's actual status. We have been sharing all the positive progressive steps that have been occuring because we are so proud of Dani's determination but are possibly giving people a false understanding of his condition. We are hoping that in the near future he is ready for visitors and want people to be prepared when they see him. We ourselves have somewhat been in denial. We thought that as soon as he was taken off the ventilator that he would start talking to us and improve by leaps and bounds. Although the doctors told us that Dani would suffer from brain damage we put that thought aside while we were concerned for his survival. Dani right now spends most of his time sleeping. He actually has just a few short periods of the day when he is alert and having fun like described above. Even during his times of alertness he kind of drifts off almost as if he is wore out. At this time Dani is not able to speak. He does at times make a moaning noise and on a rare occasion make an attempt to say something. He still is not moving his right arm and leg. He will clench with his right hand but that is due more to reflexes than forced movement. They tested his swallowing skills yesterday in hopes of feeding him regular food. Unfortunately at the time he was tested he was not able to swallow the applesauce they tried to feed him so he needs to remain on a feeding tube. We really are not sharing this information to make anyone feel bad because we are still optomistic of his recovery. We are just starting to realize that Dani has alot of work ahead of him and he will need much support. Also Dani had a visitor the other day that was under the impression that he was being sedated or was tired due to medication when actually neither one is the case. This made us realize that we were not preparing people to be comfortable when visiting Dani especially for first time visitors.
Right now Dani is in a room in the pediatric ICU unit and is assigned his own nurse 24 hours a day. They are hoping to remove the drain from Dani's brain tomorrow. This means he could be moved to a regular room within the Pediatric ICU unit within the next couple of days. This is very scary for us because his brain is still swollen outside of the skull cavity and he will not have the constant care he is currently receiving. We also worry about Dani being in a regualr room since he can not speak. The hospital has been wonderful thus far and we trust that they would not be doing anything that would be detrimental to his recovery. We hope everyone will continue to keep Dani in their prayers.
I again want to stress to everyone that we thank the lord every minute for the progress that Dani has made. We know that whatever plan God has Dani as well as us can handle it as long as we trust in him.
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