Sleepover!

Yeah!!! My night to spend the night with my hubby!

Today has been a decent day...Ron had a rough night last night without much sleep so he's tried to catch up some today. I was able to catch 5 out of 6 of his docs today which made me feel good. There is still concern that he has infection somewhere since his temp and white blood cell count are back up (wbc now at 37,000). They did an Xray of his sinuses today to see if maybe he had a sinus infection but everything there was clear and his chest Xray looks good, too. So....tomorrow they will do a CT scan of his belly; this is the most prevalent area of concern for infection since, as the doctor put it, when they did surgery the second time it was basically for "damage control"...get in; get bleeding stopped and get out without causing further trauma. They've told us all along they were not able to get all the dead tissue in his belly. This type of infection is almost expected in someone who has severe pancreatitis, regardless of whether or not they have any kind of surgery.

If they don't find anything on CT scan; they will take out the PICC line to see if this is the source of infection, and find another site for a new one.

We were also reminded that although everyone is thrilled with how well Ron is doing (considering prognosis 10 days ago); he still has a severe case of pancreatitis to deal with along with all the other issues. In other words, he is still one sick puppy!!! He is in the hospital to rest and heal; thus the reason for NO VISITORS!

I was also able to be here during his Physical Therapy. It was so great to see him taking about 10 steps with the walker. It was exhausting for him but what an accomplishment!

He's feeling somewhat better this evening and is thrilled to have a much quieter room that even has windows, instead of those obnoxiously bright lights night and day. Now he can see the sunshine and how the leaves are changing color. We are especially thankful one of us can be with him most of the time and even stay the night...much better than in CCU.

Please continue to join us in praying:
against infections!!!
for decrease in temp and white blood count
for definitive answers from CT scan
that God would remove all issues with pancreas
for rest
for **** Complete healing!!! ****
for Ryan as he travels to Florida to finish out some paperwork at his clinic there and prepares for moving back to Texas end of November (he leaves 6AM tomorrow morn; returns 8:30ish Saturday night; then will go back in a couple of weeks to have stuff moved here)
for Aaron & Kristin as they are back at school and travelling here as often as possible
for all of us as we seek to get into some kind of routine now that Ron is in the step down unit with different restrictions...peace about returning to our jobs, school, etc and how to work all of this around having time to spend with Ron

He still has a VERY long ways to go; docs are talking about at least another month in hospital then transferring to an acute care/rehab unit (not sure how long he would need to be there at this point). We know you join us in rejoiceing over each victory; no matter how small!

Much love!
Christie, Ryan, Aaron & Kristin

"I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.'" Psalm 16:2