John remaining stable, some improvements

Happy Memorial Day.

John had a decent weekend after last week's surgery. He's started up his PT again which is really great. I'm sure you know how hard John works, and this is no different. He knows his timeline for getting better has a lot to do with his physical condition, and knows how hard he needs to work.

The biggest update for today... is John had his feeding tube removed and the staff is allowing him to have real drinks of water throughout the day, on each shift. He is just thrilled!

The docs still say a lot is up to how John responds to treatment and how well his body can heal itself. Their main goals right now are to help him get rid of some fluid buildup he's had since surgery (which is as of today already a noticeable difference), getting him more physical therapy and nutrition. If he can remain stable and get stronger, the easier this entire process will get.

I know this sounds like a broken record... but we'll take each and every baby-step until John gets the you-know-what out of the hospital.

Thanks everyone, Bob

Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family in your thoughts and prayers.

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John is stable after surgery

Finally back from very rainy Florida. There's lots of flooding and water damage across the state. Just too much rain at once. My mom's roof is leaking, hopefully getting repaired today.

John has not had a good couple of days. Earlier int he week, as mentioned earlier, John was moved to a new room - off the ICU floor. Wednesday, he began to bleed internally. This continued again on Thursday and last night he was sent to surgery after another bleed that the staff could not control. Unfortunately, the surgery wasn't successful in locating the bleed and John is now in a surgical ICU unit. But Lisa says the doctors area saying he is stable today, and believe the bleeds may have been due to the amount of blood thinner John was receiving. Lisa says John looks good, is coherent and responsive and looking forward to us driving up to Charlottesville this weekend.

So we're back, once again, in the holding pattern of wait-and-see. Hopefully John can gain some more strength and keep up with the physical therapy - I don't have an update on that so that may be wishful thinking. But we'll get more info this weekend.

Take care everyone - Be careful this Holiday weekend. Lots of nuts on the road...
Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Hello from Florida! Florida has been in drought conditions for some time. We apparently brought the rain from Virginia with us. It rained the entire drive down and has rained each day while we've been here... I'm thankful we can help out other communities!

About John
John seems to be doing fairly well this past weekend. He was moved yesterday, OUT of ICU into a normal hospital room. Doctors say all vitals are normal and he is using only a small amount of oxygen and his mental awareness is much improved. This is not to say he will not visit ICU again, but for the time being, it may be best for him to leave ICU and see how he responds. It could do a world of difference for John. We'll soon find out.

There's no surgery planned for quite some time. Doctors want John to get much more nutrition and strength before attempting any more surgery. He'll hopefully be getting more physical therapy visits soon, but we're not sure of the schedule yet.

When I hear John's new Room #, I'll let everyone know.

Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Just wanted to add a quick update as I am heading out of town tonight.

John has had a rather rough week. The feeding tube the hospital was using had apparently separated form John's stomach and has caused soreness and obviously left a void. They have since found other ways to give John the needed nutrients, but right now this is most important. He needs to get as healthy as possible so they can perform surgery to repair several problem areas in his abdomen. John has increasingly grown anxious each and everyday this week about all the things going on and is quite worried about the future. But Lisa and mom have been comforting all week and we'll just have to wait and see how he progresses. The good news is the staff had stopped John's medicine for low blood pressure earlier this week.

Please continue to keep John and the family in your thoughts and prayers. They need it more than ever and are extremely thankful for everyone thus far.

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CONGRATULATIONS LISA!!

Just wanted everyone to know that Lisa successfully passed all classes and exams towards earning her nursing degree! Congratulations Lisa!!

I am sure we ALL know that earning a college degree is not an easy task. That journey is also not completed by many people who are wives, mothers (of very busy teenagers) and responsible home owners. When you add to all that, the stress, confusion and frustration of a loved one hospitalized, you must truly understand that you've accomplished something very special.

So, congratulations Lisa - You deserve it. Best of luck.

Thanks everyone! Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family.

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Good Friday Morning!
John did pretty well yesterday. He should be getting a swallowing test soon to determine if he can begin taking in food on his own - obviously this won't be pizza and subs, but it's a progressive step in the right direction. John's doctors have said surgery is not an option for some time, as John has a lot of healing to do and progress to make before they will perform another surgery - for irregularities in his colon and bowels. So that part is another wait-and-see. Otherwise, John is probably the most coherent and alert that he's been since being hospitalized.

Visitation help
As you've been reading, you know that we have been visiting John as much as we can. With work, kids, sports and school schedules, it's becoming more difficult to have someone physically with him all the time. Since John is in much better condition than when he was in Roanoke, we'd like to ask that if you desire to see John and have the time to do so, he would thoroughly enjoy visitors at this point. A couple things to remember if you want to visit:

• UVA Medical Center, Charlottesville, room 3182
• Visiting hours are 9am-9pm
  
• roughly 2 hours from Roanoke area
• Always call the nurses station from waiting area or hallway outside ICU - There's always a chance they are busy with John and may need a few minutes.
• Please abide by any/all ICU rules! We love the nursing staff there and ticking them off is not a good thing. Problems with nursing staff can turn into regulating visitation.
• Finally, most nurses during the day strictly adhere to the 2-people at a time rule. This ensures they have easy access to the room and to John as they will be in and out of the room on a regular basis. Tell the nurse how many are in your party when you arrive, they will tell you if they'll make any exceptions.

Enough rules? ;-) Anyway, there are a few people that might like to drop in and see him. So please comment here if you have any questions.

Thanks everyone! Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family.

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Progress and Setbacks

Seems like this week is moving so quickly.
We stayed with John over last weekend in Charlottesville. It was a really good weekend. John seemed to have improved so much in the four days prior to that. He is speaking better, with a new trache valve, and much, much more coherent and alert. He's beginning to have movement in his hands and feet again. John has aggressively exercised with stress balls and moves into a chair each day.

Several doctors and staff have applauded John's progress and latest status. His surgical wound seems to be healing on its own - or at least making progress on his own. He was upgraded to a feeding tube through his nose, which gave him much more nutrients than he was getting only through IV. Earlier this week, the staff decided they'd remove the NG tube and feed John directly through a tube already inserted into his abdomen (this was considered an upgrade since his stomach had no problems with the increased feeding). Things certainly looked as though John was progressing quite well.

Tuesday we learned that John was to receive a series of tests on Wednesday where doctors would prick John's muscles and nervous system to evaluate where he stands physically. This would help determine his condition as well as give them an idea of how to progress with physical therapy.

Unfortunately, John did not receive the test yesterday. The staff realized John was not getting the nutrients he needed thus far. After CT scans of John's abdomen, they determined he's not receiving the nutrients into his small intestines as he should. They're currently looking at new ways to properly get the food into his system. This looks like more surgery is needed fairly soon. We're hopeful Lisa will find out today what their plan is going forward and get John back on track again. (Lisa in school today, Good Luck on those tests Lisa!!)

Hopefully this is a minor setback. I know its difficult to call any setback at this point minor, but the staff at UVA have been phenomenal so far. I hope to hear today what the outlook is for surgery. I'll update this blog as soon as I hear something.

Thanks everyone! Please continue to support John, Lisa and the family.

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Donations now accepted Online

We've established a bank account for John and Lisa. We've also created a Donation PayPal account where anyone can now make donations of ANY kind using their credit card or PayPal account.

Also, I know many of you are quite good organizers. Please continue to think of ways we can all help to raise donations. Any and all donations are extremely appreciated and will help pay bills and expenses as John fights through this illness. For now, here's the Online Donation Account: