John receives late night surgery

John got an abdominal CT late yesterday afternoon as doctors were concerned about his continual blood pressure fluctuations, thinking he may be bleeding internally. They took him into surgery late last night to repair several damaged areas in his bowel due to infection (perforated bowel).

Please understand we're back to a very serious situation. John did make it through surgery OK. His recovery from surgery will no doubt affect his long term recovery from the wegener's disease but will not have affect on the treatments he is already receiving. He did receive plasma treatments today, and even though he's been sedated and given more medication due to the infection and surgery, John was still somewhat alert and communicative today. That's good news. But we are back to a wait-and-see situation to see how he heals after surgery.

More later as soon as I have it. Thanks everyone.

Still interactive and increased movement

Sorry for missing yesterday's posting. Yesterday, Sunday the 29th, John showed increased motor skills from the day before. He has increased awareness and head movement.

John stayed awake for us for several hours on Sunday. He was able to answer questions by shaking his head yes and no. He even moved his leg slightly to a comment I had made to him and his wife Lisa.

Overall, John seems to be on the right track. The hospital staff is also encouraged with his progress. We'll continue to watch him and talk to him and hope he continues.

Thanks again everyone. Please continue to keep John in your thoughts and prayers as he continues towards recovery.

*Happy Birthday Kathy Hopkins!

PARTY! John is trying to wake!

After yesterday's somber news, John is trying to wake this morning. He's been working on opening his eyes and has been reactive to family conversation.

Unfortunately, the hospital staff has his plasma treatment scheduled and we'll have to wait until 4:30 to get back in to see him. But very, very good news this morning.

Please continue to keep John in your thoughts and prayers - Something is working!

Friday update

John's in his new ICU unit. Visitor access is much more strict. The staff began to bring him off the heavy sedation on Wednesday, but John still remains unresponsive. The family has been communicating with him the past two days to help bring him back around.

The staff performed a head CT today. We were all pretty worried about its potential results. The doctors told Lisa this afternoon that the CT was normal - very good news.

There were also other good signs today. John's O2 is much better and his lungs seem to be improved. The ventilator has been lowered again so he's breathing more and more on his own. We're all just waiting for him to wake up and smile again at everyone.

So let's all keep the faith and hope for continued improvement - Thanks everyone.

John is moving to new room

John is being moving to a new ICU unit, still within Roanoke Memorial hospital. The room and unit he has been in thus far was the only available option at the time of his arrival.

After the test results came in, the staff has confirmed that John had suffered an infection from one of the lines where he was receiving treatment. The good news is they had replaced all lines as a precaution when they learned of his infection and high fever. John's fever has hovered around 99-100 the last day or so. However, everyone is hopeful that the antibiotics along with the dialysis will soon rid him of the infection and bring his temperature back to normal.

John is still receiving his daily plasma treatments and associated medications. We'll continue to monitor him closely and hope for the best.

The staff is once again working towards reducing John's dependency on the ventilator. He is still heavily sedated, but as his fever reduces, we should see the staff begin working on this again.

That's about it for now. I'll update as soon as I get further information. Thanks again to everyone. Please continue to keep John and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

As previously reported... due to an infection, the staff replaced all John's lines and dialysis yesterday. The family is awaiting test results for the type of infection and the hospital staff had given him antibiotics to cover a range of problems. As of this morning, John's temperature was back down to around 99. This is good news. He was stable today and still heavily sedated and resting. He is receiving a lot of attention and visiting John for any amount of time has been extremely difficult.

We also believe John is in very good hands at Roanoke Memorial. The staff has been very forthcoming with information, pleasant to talk with and very caring.

Aside from his prescribed treatments, the staff believes they will begin to be more aggressive in reducing John's dependency on the ventilator - which they tried last week.

We all know how strong and independent John is and know that he can fight through this. Let's all continue to wish him the best as he battles through some of these difficult times during recovery.

The family has also been in contact with the Red Cross for plasma donation on John's behalf. There will be more information about this coming soon.There have been a number of munificent gifts to John and his family. Please know the family is extremely thankful and humbled by the generosity. You are truly wonderful people.

Monday, March 23, 2009

John unfortunately had a rough night last night. The hospital staff informing the family that John has a high temperature and fighting infection. They've been running tests this morning to hopefully find the cause. We'll visit John today, hopefully we'll know more soon.

Adding comments to this blog

Hello, No real updates today. Per the hospital staff, John is receiving needed and deserved rest.

There have been several people ask about leaving comments on this blog. If you'll look at the END of each new posting, there is info about who posted the entry (me), the TIME it was posted, followed by "COMMENTS" - Just click on the "COMMENTS" word and you can add your own comments to the blog. You can also view everyone elses' comments.

Thanks again everyone. More later...

BTW, The "Christiansburg Crushers" (Shane's baseball team) is 2-1 so far in this weekend's tournament. They're heading into their final game of the competition at 6PM tonight.

Shane Baseball Tournament this weekend

A few people have asked about attending the baseball tournament this weekend. If you'd like to do that, Shane and the team would greatly appreciate your support.

As noted earlier, the tournament play will be at 9:00AM and 3:30PM Saturday, Sunday will be 11:45AM and 6PM (will update if this changes). Both days of the tournament will be played at the Christiansburg Harkrader Sports Complex - located just BEHIND the (new) Christiansburg Middle School. More information is provided here:

Web site:
http://www.christiansburg.org/index.asp?NID=182

Address/Directions (the fields are located BEHIND the school):
http://www.mcps.org/cms/directions.html

Welcome Spring!

*PLEASE READ*
Everyone, we'll do the best we can with keeping everyone up-to-date on this blog. Please share this with whom you believe may be interested or concerned with John's progress.

Please also understand that as the family looks forward to, and celebrates, each small milestone that John meets, he is still very, very sick. His doctors are working diligently and aggressively to both remove him from the ventilator And keep his progress on target for his treatments to get better. I hope everyone can undestand how difficult it is for someone to be under so much pressure. John is both very worn out with his treatment and extremely susceptible to illness due to his depressed immune system.

With that, the family and hospital suggest he receive a very limited amount of visitors - restricted to family - until he improves further and is successfully taken off the ventilator. Any exceptions would need prior approval from the family - you may contact me if needed, to relay any requests to the immediate family. We all realize how important John is to everyone. Please post your comments to this blog, or send John a note of encouragement, etc.

As for an update for today - As stated, the doctors at Roanoke Memorial are aggressively trying to reduce his dependence on the ventilator. Once this is complete, John will receive a kidney biopsy to give them the best status of and damage to his kidneys. But he will need to be breathing on his own to do this. Also reported earlier was that his plasma treatments would be reduced to every-other-day, but we learned today they will wait for this and he'll receive the treatments daily. We haven't received today's chest xray results yet, but his breathing progress has been hampered the last two days. We're hopeful to see some improvement in this area very soon.

Everything else is still day-to-day and simply wait to see how he progresses. As noted, Please consult with me or the immediate family before visiting.

Thanks so much to everyone thus far. Please continue to keep John in your thoughts and prayers.

Best Regards,
Bob
bobhopkins@mac.com
540.998.9372

Seeing improvement today

John's doctors are encouraged by his breathing progress today. His vent was lowered again today, down to 60%. Latest news is they will begin reducing his plasma treatments to every-other day instead of each day.

So good news... Also, John got a knew toy today, a B.S. alert button which he is very proud of.

More to come...

Last day of Winter!

John is getting his plasma treatment this morning so there are no visitors allowed until about noon today. One small bit of information from this morning is that for two days in a row, John appears to be making improvements breathing on his own. They have reset his respirator down to 80%. Although this is still a high value for a machine to be helping him breathe, the fact that the machine was at 100% until yesterday morning is encouraging.

For those following the blog, I'll have Shane this weekend and he will be attending this weekend's baseball tournament at Harkrader's sports facility near Christiansburg Middle School. We play at 9am and 1:30pm both Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks again everyone. Please continue to keep John in your thoughts and prayers.

March 18 update

John is in pretty good spirits today. As always, he still shares his great personality and sense of humor with everyone he encounters.

No real updates so far today. John received a good result from his EKG this morning and the family is still waiting for his chest xray results. He'll begin plasma treatments around 1:30pm today thru the rest of the afternoon. The staff has chosen to move the treatments to earlier in the day so he can have visitors in the evening time.

More later. Please continue to keep John your thoughts and prayers.

Talking with John this afternoon

John is communicating well with the family this afternoon; in between his naps. He's in good spirits and is getting better and better at writing down his comments on paper. He's been receiving guests on and off and is very happy to see everyone.

John is in Roanoke Memorial Hospital, 9 South, Room 6.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Just a quick update this morning. As stated, John received his first plasma and chemo treatments last night. Some good news : John was awake this morning for his wife, Lisa and family. The doctors haven't ruled anything as "progress" yet, but the fact that he was awake is a great sign. We continue to wish John well and hope for the best.

I'll be seeing John this morning and will update everyone if/when there is further information.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued support!! Please share this blog with all those who may want to wish John well.

Monday PM, March 16, 2009

John has remained stable today. He began several treatments this evening towards his recovery. The doctors at Roanoke Memorial Hospital remain encouraged by the schedule of his treatments. They remain convinced his diagnosis is Wegener's Disease, a disease which begins via infection and targets the bady's blood vessels, lungs and kidneys. There is plenty more information available on the Internet.

There is no doubt John is very sick. But the disease, when caught in time, has a 95% success rate of full recovery since treatment was discovered in the early 1970's.

John has a tough night of treatments ahead of him. Please continue to offer your thoughts and prayers.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Again, thanks to all who are concerned with John's status and recovery.

Please use this blog to receive the most up-to-date knowledge of John's status. The family is most thankful for everyone's calls, emails, etc. We'll try to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible - please reference this blog for further information.

Please continue to keep John in your thoughts and prayers.