John had quite the full day yesterday. After all the coloring, playing, and smiling, the Physical Therapist had come in and helped John up to a standing position. She had to brace his knees, but he was actually putting a little pressure on his legs. He needs to continue to do exercises that will strengthen his head. She also suggested playing games on the iPad that are just out of reach, forcing him to stretch out his arms and strengthen his core.
Since John's first night in the PICU, he has been going through a barrage of tests and therapy treatments around the clock. Just to name a few:
1) Respiratory therapy (Jiggle Jacket) every 4 hours for about 20 minutes at a time
2) Oxygen assessments every few hours to see if he was able to come off the mask
3) Neuro checks every 1 hour, when he was first admitted, that involved turning on the room lights, shining a light into his eyes, checking his temperature and waking him up to see if he could squeeze their hand and kick
4) Early morning chest x-rays, sometime between 4:30-5:30am, which involves lowering his bed, removing the leads on his chest, rolling in a large machine with one arm hovering over his chest and one that gets slide underneath him
5) A blood draw every morning, also sometime between 4:30-5:30am, where he needs to be held still
Not the best setup for a restful night of sleep, but John has somewhat gotten used to PICU overnights because he is able to sleep through blood pressure alarms, the obnoxious IV alarm, nurses checking, switching, or flushing out his lines. Mainly now, it is the hour after an assessment or therapy treatment that he is the most agitated.
But yesterday's good day continued into the night. The staff was hoping he was so tired out from the day's activities that he would sleep. Since he can be off the oxygen mask for a significant period of time now, oxygen assessments were scaled back to every 12 hours. However, the big news yesterday was no Jiggle Jacket during the night and neuro checks were going to be stretched out to every 4 hours. They never came to do his chest x-ray and it is unclear if it was to allow him to keep sleeping or if it was because his lungs have improved enough that it warranted the x-ray to be cancelled. Either way, John was less agitated and able to get some solid hours of sleep in last night to help with his recovery. This gives peace of mind to the family as tonight begins a rotating crew of overnight volunteers.
Jason's mom and sister, Joanne and Shawna, return to California this morning. It is a strong possibility that Joanne's work will allow her to temporarily move to Denver. We are hoping to find out later this evening. If she is, she will try to return by this Sunday evening and ideally she will work out of Jason and Erin's home and help with driving the kids during the day. There are a lot of logistics involved if she were allowed to move to Denver temporarily and a very short amount of time to get things done. Joanne had moved out to LA to help with Shawna's family, so it would mean for Shawna's family to do their own shuffling of schedules and caretakers. Also, Joanne would need all her work equipment and files packed up, flown out and setup before Monday morning.
Prayer Requests:
- more restful and uninterrupted nights for John
- more significant steps in his recovery where assessments are scaled back further and further apart
- Jason's mom and sister to have peace of mind with John's care as they leave Denver this morning
- Jason's mom to be able to temporarily move to Denver, returning this Sunday evening, relieving the family of the dreaded gap in extended family help
- all the big and small details that will be involved with Joanne's potential move to be taken care of smoothly and quickly
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