William’s condition, update 3 :-)

This is good!!!!! First of all, thank you – thank you – thank you, our dear friends and family who have been praying diligently on my family’s behalf. You cannot begin to understand my gratitude towards all of you; every single one of you! I’m so thankful you’ve stepped in on William’s behalf to pray for him, as he can’t pray for himself right now. I’m so thankful for you that you’ve interceded in prayer for me when I haven’t had the words to pray.

Before Will’s last waking for the day, I was alone with him. It’s almost like, I was going back and forth between encouraging him to keep fighting and begging the Lord to let me see his eyes. God is the giver of all good gifts so I boldly went before our Lord in prayer and asked for another glimmer of hope.

Bea & I got to be there when nurse Tara took him off the propifol to see how he did when we woke up for the third time today. It started different; nurse Tara told us to just be quiet while he woke up. (It’s different because in the past they would take him off and start yelling commands at him.) So, we sat and waited and were quiet. 15 minutes passed and I felt like we were getting nowhere. Settling in my heart, I thought, ok Lord – just not yet. I started asking nurse Tara questions like how long we were going to leave him off for? (15 minutes is usually what we do.) Well, how long should it take for him to respond? (usually right away. oh boy, which I understand because yesterday he did respond like a fighter right away.) Even as she tried making him cough, he seemed more irritated than anything else. (Which by the way, when there’s tubes down your husbands throat and nose, the last thing you would want to watch is them forcing him to cough to wake him up a little.) I had to turn away at this point; it was a scary scene.

I stand at his head ready to see those crystal blue eyes, Bea right next to me, and nurse Tara on the other side of the bed…

• nurse: (in a loud voice) “William, open your eyes”
• Will: nothing
• she continues to say this a few times with no response. Bea and I are fixated on his face and we’re just waiting for his eyes to open.
• nurse: “William, squeeze my hand”
• nurse: “GOOD BOY, WILL!!!!!!”
• we didn’t see the squeeze because we’re glued to watching his face.
• nurse: “Will, can you hold up two fingers?”
• Will: he held two fingers up on the left hand!!!!!
• nurse: “Will, can you wiggle your toes?”
• Will: wiggled his left toes!!!! (I’ve never loved a toe wiggle more!!!)
• nurse: “Will, open your eyes.”
• Will: opened his eyes!!!!
• nurse: “Will, can you see your wife? She’s here!”
• Jenet: “Hi Honey, I’m right here!!”
• Will: turned his neck, opened his eyes, and nodded yes!!!
• we continued to ask him questions and he answered every single one of them with a nod yes or no. We asked him if he was in pain, and he nodded yes. We continued to ask him where the pain was in specific parts of his body and he would answer no to all of them. Then, he lifted his left hand as if to start pointing to where the pain was. (because his hands are strapped down, he couldn’t get far enough to point.)
• Continued to talk to him about Carter and I asked him if he wanted to watch a movie tonight. And, nurse Tara reassurred him she would help him with the pain.
• In the beginning as Bea and I were watching the two finger showing and toe wiggling, we both instantly started leaping in the air and crying tears of joy!!
• This is where we see Jesus’s miraculous ways. As I kissed his forehead goodnight and we left the room, doing cartwheels, nurse Tara tells us to stop. “Give me a hug” she says, as she’s crying tears of joy with us. And, this is where I wonder…Lord, who else needs to see that you are real?!

I am thrilled beyond measure right now. Beyond absolute measure. Beyond human measure. Beyond medical measure. Not beyond the measure or power of God. (Can I get an Amen?!)

Why is this so important? We need to see that William can wake up and follow commands. We need to see that he is able to process information and respond. Because, we still do not know the extent of damage that there might be to his brain. So, showing the progress the Lord worked through him tonight, was huge.

I have to tell you all something … this morning, as I spoke with nurse Tara, I told her in my own “stay at home wife” knowledge, I thought Dr. Roberts (his ICU doc) was asking too much of him that after 24 hours he would expect Will to follow commands. (this was yesterday) She reassured me…now after 48 hours, he followed 3 commands, opened his eyes, and answered a bunch of questions!!! Well, I guess it’s not too much for Jesus to give! So, I told her…”Tara, you tell that Dr. Roberts every single thing that happened!” (You’ve got to know, he’s an amazing smart, knowledgable doctor, with zero bedside manner; which is why I’m recording/making a big deal about this part.)

Bea and I ran out to the waiting room with so many of you waiting with us, anticipating any sort of news…we came out running and jumping and smiling!!! SMILING!!! The tears were joyful this time! We replayed the entire scene to you and joined together in prayer as we thanked our God, humbly for yet more glimmers of hope. More miracles. Ohh, we can breathe again.

After leaving, nurse Tara called me with part of his spinal tap results from today:

• Monday, the white blood cell count from the spinal tap was 5,000.
• Today it’s 800. Thank you Jesus!!!
• Monday the fluid in the spinal tap was “murky.”
• Today’s results showed the fluid was clear. Thank you Jesus!!!

Let’s remember to give praise to God who gets all the glory from the miracles being shown! Friends and family, please continue to pray with us:

• The spinal fluid is getting better, but it is still infected.
• We will continue to see results from today’s spinal tap during the next 48 hours as the cultures develop and we get to see what else we’re dealing with as far as the bacteria & bugs in the system are concerned.
• Pray that William will continue to stay responsive; not aggressive when taken off propofol.

We praise you Jesus, for miracles. We thank you for the outpour of love we’ve received from an incredible amount of people, those near and far away. We are humbled.

As a side note: Visitors are still welcome. I have loved my time with each of you just sitting with me; reading scripture; reading a trash mag; forcing me to eat; letting me cry; helping me to breath deeply; praying. Please feel free to continue to come. Understand, because of his infection, right now, only immediate family can come back to see him personally. (I think that’s awesome, because it shows we over-crowded that ICU with everyone who loves Will!)

William’s Condition, update 2

Today for William holds a day of peaceful sleep, sweet dreams…and as I like to think, communion with Jesus. His day was to be woken at 8, 12, & 4. They’re taking him off the propofal to see how he reacts when he gains consciousness. Bea and I just left the room for the 12 waking, and we can see it’s taking his brain longer to process waking up. He just barely opened his eyes, moved his body around a little bit. But, nothing like the fighter I saw yesterday. From my understanding, the longer he’s on propfal, the harder it is to wake up anyways, so I’m hoping that’s why we didn’t see such a good response. I’m only hoping that.

We did get worse news. The strain of bacterial menangitus he has is called streptococcus pneumonai (pneunmococcus). He’s been on 3 antibiotics; a cocktail of drugs of which is supposed to be very good for anyone in this situation. The bad news is that the strain of bacteria he has is rejecting part of the antibiotics that they’re using to kill the bacteria. One of these bacteria alone cannot kill the entire system.

“This just makes a bad situation worse.” (doctor’s words)

Where this puts us: He’s getting a spinal tap today and we should see some of the results. The spinal tap will tell us if the bacteria has increased, decreased, or stayed the same. Then the microbiologist and icu doctor can determine what other drugs they can use to treat him. It’s a possibility that they may use a drug that’s about 10 years old, which comes with side effects. It’s a possibility there is a deeper infection they haven’t discovered yet.

I’m telling you and pleading with you to get on your knees and stay with us in prayer. I’m so numb right now and can’t even process all this information.

I’ll update with spinal tap results asap.