It looks like Dad will be out of ICU and into a regular room by Monday. Again, prayers answered! He will be in the hospital for about another week total & then should be able to come home. We are soooooo excited!
Thank you all again for all your prayers and support. Dad has a lot of rehab to go through to get back to his old self but he's pulled through the hardest part & is on the road to recovery.
Between running to the hospital and having computer problems, it's been a few days since I've posted an update on Dad, however, I have good news to report.
Yesterday, Monday, they extibated (spelling??) him and removed the feeding tube as well so he's off the ventilator! He had a rough night last night (meds were making him queasy) but that's under control and he even sat up on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes after dinner tonight. Since his throat is sore, he's still in the soup-and-liquids food category but it's better than that feeding tube.
Now the fun starts - tomorrow: Physical therapy! He is gonna be sooooooo sore and soooo crabby tomorrow night when I get up there. Oh, yeah - that's another thing, he can barely speak because of his sore throat but he did manage to chew me a new orifice in my backside about taking too much time off work. He's getting ornery - that's a good sign for sure!
Thank you to all who have prayed and are continuing to pray for Dad and our family - he is proof that prayer works. A man of his age, in his physical condition (heart trouble) that gets injured that badly usually gets intibated (on a ventilator) and that is the beginning of the end for them. No so for Dad and I believe it's all due to the power of prayer friends.
God Bless you all.
Imagine the look on my face when walking by the newspaper rack, I get my first glimpse of the accident scene. Up to this point, I had avoided newspapers for that very reason but tonight I saw them & it hit me very hard.
Dad is still in serious condition in the neurological intensive care unit. He is however, stable. No big changes to report. The absence of bad news is, in fact, good news.
I'll keep you all posted.
Dad took a turn for the worse this morning. He went into respiratory distress. With the injuries to his chest & lungs, they were now swelling due to the trauma caused in the accident. His chest cavity and lungs were filling with fluid and putting pressure on his heart. So...... They put under with some heavy meds and then put him on a ventilator. For the next four days (minimum) a machine will be breathing for him. He will be unconscious due to the meds (this is to keep him comfortable) but not in a coma, just deeply sleeping.
It was really scary to see Dad lying there unconscious with all those tubes coming out of him. It shouldn't have bothered me so much - I saw him after his triple by-pass surgery 8 years ago and that was worse. I guess the memory of it fades after awhile. It's very disturbing to feel so helpless.
Thank you to all those who have left comments and to everyone for your prayers - I really do believe in the power of prayer and I know God is listening.
By the way Opie - his name is John, my kids call him "John-John" ( a story for another time as to why).
Better than good - great! Dad is doing much better than expected. They got the bleeding into his brain stopped, his lung will heal on it's own and is re-inflated, the 7 broken ribs, broken collarbone, the 4" laceration across the back of his head (requiring staples) and the bruising all over his body will just take time to heal. At this point, he is still in the neurological intensive care unit of the hospital. He is stable, aware of what is going on and even teasing some of the nurses! They are allowing him semi-solid food which he actually wants to eat (even if it is hospital food!) which is a big deal to him.
Bottom line: As long as there are no complications with his heart, he's out of the worst of it. Thank you all for your prayers - I know it made a difference. I could feel it, I know Dad did too. God Bless you all.
A little more accurate info on the accident itself:
As Dad was passing the farm tractor, it made a left turn into Dad's truck just behind the front wheels narrowly missing the fuel tank. This caused Dad to jack-knife and roll the truck. We're not sure if it went completely over or not but when it came to rest after sliding for over 200 feet, the cab and trailer were lying drivers side down. In the course of the accident, the trailer came close to coming through the cab but stopped short of it, the truck & trailer took out an electrical pole with a transformer on it and hit a natural gas main so that was leaking. We just thank the Lord that there wasn't any fuel leaking from the truck, only some oil. The EMT's had to go through the front windshield of the truck to cut Dad out as his leg was pinned under the steering wheel and then they removed him from the rear window of the truck. He was then taken by Lifeline helicopter to the hospital. And get this - the owner of the company whose employee was responsible for the accident - he called the hospital to check on Dad! How cool is that?
Thanks again for your prayers for Dad & my family. Who says the internet separates & isolates people? It's brought me a whole new family to add to what I already have.
Dad is in the neurological intensive care unit at the hospital. He has 7 broken ribs (not 3) and in addition, his collar bone is broken and there is an extensive laceration behind his left ear that required a considerable number of stitches. He is still bleeding from the chest tube (put in due to the punctured lung).
How did the accident happen? Dad was driving his semi on a local, rural, 2-lane highway. He was following a farm tractor and pulled out to pass it. Without making a signal of any kind, the tractor pulled off the highway into a field making a left turn in front of Dad's semi-truck. They hit in a "T" fashion - Dad's truck and trailer rolled. The farmer, we understand, is not hurt. Thank the Lord for a very large blessing there. This accident could've been instantly deadly for both men.
To anyone that may read this post - my family desperately needs your prayers tonight.
My father drives semi part-time and was doing a run this afternoon when he was involved in an accident about 30 miles from home. He has three broken ribs, a punctured lung and is bleeding into his brain. At present, he is stabilized and in the ICU of a very good local hospital. He also has serious heart problems and this makes medicating him quite difficult. They need to stop the bleeding into his brain - however, causing his blood to clot this quickly could cause a heart attack. His heart is only working at about 28% of capacity so even a mild heart attack could kill him.
Thank you all for your prayers - I know Dad will be able to pull through this with the power of prayer.
Dad circa 1937 - This is one of my favorite pictures Grandma B sent me! Daddy was sooooo cute! hehehe
Isn't this sooooo cute??? Easter 1968. My Grandma B made matching Easter outfits for my sisters and I. I'm the little blonde one with my oldest sister holding my baby sister.
Grandma B, age 89 and my only living grandparent now, sent me tons of family photos this past week. Some are really old (pre 1940) and some are not so old (my children as babies) and there's everything in between. Over the next weeks/months, or whenever the urge hits me, I'll pick a personal favorite and post some of photographic family history for my blogger family to see. I hope you all enjoy.
Well, not really name it, but I have been informed of the origins of a little song we've all sung since children at camps and Sunday Schools around the world......... "Kum Bah Yah"
Billy: Miss C, I know where the song "Kum Bah Yah" came from!
~C~: Oh, really? Where is that Billy?
Billy: From Jesus' disciples of course! (sighs in exasperation)
~C~: How do you know that?
Billy: 'Cause some really bad, mean people stuck Jesus on a cross and put nails in his feets and then in his hands too and then when he was crying for us 'cause we didn't listen to God, his disciples sang "Kum Bah Yah" to him.
~C~: Is that so? Where did you find that out?
Billy: My Grandma told me so, 'cept for the song part, I just figured that out. It was that or it was at the last supper..... That was the last time Jesus ate with his disciples before some really mean guys stuck him on that cross and put nails in his feets and hands. That's when they sang it, yeah, at that last supper thing.
Some days, I really love my job.
