NEW POST!

I know, I know, I am the biggest slacker in the world. I know it, so I won't even try to defend myself.

Things continue to go very well for us on the "Katie" front. Every day she gets a little bit better. Her memory is very good (I can no longer lie to her about what a great husband I've been all these years, she knows better). She still struggles a little with remembering things that happened today, but even that is getting much better. Her left eye still has a little bit of blurriness, but that is improving as well.

She is down to one therapy now, speech (cognitive). Physical and occupational are all done. Her speech therapist continues to be amazed at Katie's ability to reason and think at a very high level. Speech therapy will be done by the end of the year.

One thing to pray for is while Katie was in the hospital her drivers license expired and she will have to take a written test as well as a driving test before she can get her DL back. This will be challenging for her as her reading is still a little on the slow side.

Good news on the "brain" side. Another angiogram (sp?) was taken and it appears that her arteries are beginning to straighten out. The vascular Dr was very pleased with the results and said that the dissected artery where the bleed took place is healing nicely. Also, she does not have any other convoluted arteries in her body, which is a good thing. The clots are still in her leg, but the Dr's are no longer worried about them "traveling" to somewhere else in her body.

Katie is still on Cumadin for the clots and blood pressure medicine, though they have been able to reduce the BP medicine as her body regains normal function in this area.

Her hair is growing back nicely and most times we can hardly see the scar. Pretty soon we won't be able to call her "spiky".

Kyle and Karen moved back to their home about 3 weeks ago and so far we are managing. Katie's mom lives in the house directly behind ours, and she has been a lifesaver for us. She comes over during the day and helps with Sawyer and takes Katie to her Dr's appointments. This has allowed me to go back to work (as I write this I am in a hotel in Kansas City on business). We couldn't do any of this without Sue!

As far as Sawyer is concerned, he is doing great. For the most part he is sleeping through the night (8-9 hrs a night) which has been great for us! One concern with Sawyer that I haven't told you about is that he has a slight heart murmur. We knew this from the day that he was born and I have taken him to a pediatric cardiologist and they have confirmed that he has a "floppy valve" in his heart. So far there haven't been any issues with it and we go back when he is 9 months old for another echo of the heart. The Dr is optimistic that he will grow out of this. So, we pray for him regularly. Just as with Katie we trust God for his healing and are not worried. Otherwise he is growing and is a very happy baby. You should see his huge smile!

Thanks again to all of you who continue to serve us by bringing us meals, this continues to be a huge blessing for our family! Also, thanks to all of you who continue to pray for us as we know that God hears the cries of his children and does good things for those that love Him and are called by His name.

Wednesday morning

Well this last weekend was a great one. Busy, but a very good one. A week or so after Katie's surgery someone brought tickets for us to go to Adventureland here in Des Moines. It's our local amusement park. So on Saturday morning Katie, the girls, myself, and Sue all got packed up and headed to the park. The weather was great, and other than the large crowds, we had a wonderful time. It was good exercise for Katie, and she even got to go on a few rides. Of course my fearless little girls had a blast as they always do. We had lunch there and then headed home around 2:30 as Katie was wearing down and needed her nap.

On Sunday I always head to church much earlier than the family as I help set up and practice with the band in preparation for our Church service. Church was good, but we had to head home as soon as possible to get everything ready for Katie's party. I mowed the grass and a bunch of people from church came and helped set up chairs, tables, and the grill. Sue and Karen cleaned the house and by 5:00 we were ready to go. The morning had started out cloudy and cool, but by the afternoon the sun was out and it was near 70 (kind of reminds me of Katie's situation). As the sun went down we built a fire in the fire pit, and a bunch of us sat on the back patio and talked until around 9:00. We had a number from Methodist hospital show up and it was so good to see them all again. Mac from the radio and his wife came, and Christina from Channel 5 came and did a follow up story on Katie. Katie did a great job with the interview and of course, was the hit of the party. All together we guess 100+ people came throughout that night. It really was a great time and Katie had a blast.

On Tuesday I took Katie to her therapy sessions as Sue had a Dr's appointment to go to. While we were with the speech and physical therapist, Katie ask if they thought she would be done by the first of the year as she is wanting to get back to work. Both said that she would be done with them before that. Katie was excited as this shows that she continues to improve and is close to being able to do all the things she used to do.

Good news on the baby front! For the last week Sawyer has been sleeping through the night! He goes down around 9pm and doesn't get up until 6am. All I can say is, "that's my boy"! So, I've been getting up with him in the mornings and I have been enjoying the time with him from 6-7am when the girls need to get up for school. Every morning he wakes up with a big smile on his face, makes my day.

I know that I don't post as much as I used to, and I know that has not endeared me with most of you. But, while things are going well, there just are not as many changes as there used to be. Katie is getting better every day, but in small ways, not big ones (I'm also working full time now and not sitting in a hospital room looking for something to do). Just rest assured that if something bad happened, updating the blog would be one of the first things I would do. And the same would be true if something really good happened.

The other day Katie bought some thank you cards as she is feeling really guilty about how much everyone has helped us but we (meaning I) have not sent out any "thank you cards". I tried to tell her that we tried to keep track of what everyone had done, but by the first couple of weeks it was basically out of control and we couldn't keep up. So, on behalf of Katie and the family, I want to say thanks so much to all of you for everything you have done and are doing (we had Famous Dave's delivered last night, thanks Hanson's!).

Radio Show

Mac has invited Katie to be a part of the show tomorrow and Katie has agreed. So, Katie and I will be in the studio on Friday the 26th. My guess is that we will be on between 2-3, but the show actually starts around 1:20.

www.983wowfm.com

Wednesday Night

Ok, here's the latest. No real big changes in the last week or so, but everything continues to be going very well. Katie's days consist of rest (lots of it), therapy (both with therapist and at home), playing with the girls, and trying to keep up with what Kyle is doing with her real estate business. So far Katie is doing great with everything.

So far no more TIA's. Basically all of the Dr's say that we are doing everything that we could (blood thinner and blood pressure meds). It's possible that more could happen, but so far nothing has happened and we are basically not worrying about it anymore.

The issues that still persist are short term memory and vision. However, both are improving nicely. It was so neat the other day on the way to church Katie actually remembered giving birth to Sawyer. She was so excited as all of the details of that day came back to her. Even though I say her short term memory is a problem, she is still much better than a week ago. Her left eye is still a little blurry, but it too is much better then it was even a week ago.

The biggest issue for Katie right now is probably tiredness. We're not sure if its residual from her injury, or a side effect of some of her meds (her blood pressure med has a common side effect of tiredness), but Katie needs a lot of rest. She takes a big nap in the afternoon and is usually in bed by 8pm. Being tired all the time keeps her from doing her therapy as hard as she could and keeps her from being as "sharp" as she could be.

We've meet with a lot of Dr's in the past few weeks and all are happy with how everything is going. On Tuesday we meet with Dr Carlstrom. Basically he did not have a lot of answers (not that we were expecting a lot), but he said that it's a real possibility that this could happen again. He also said that everything could heal up and be just fine for the rest of her life. We're going with the latter. It was cool to see Katie's response to this. She was not worried and was confident that God would fix everything in her head and that she would be fine.

I went down to the hospital last week and walked around to the different departments to make sure people knew about the party. Everyone I saw said they knew about the party and most said that they are coming. So, we are excited to have a bunch of people over on Sunday and to be able to say thanks to everyone from Methodist. I even swung by their PR department as they are wanting to put Katie on the cover of one of their internal magazines.

FYI - I will be on the radio this Friday with Mac from 2-3pm. You can hear it online at www.983wowfm.com

Update

The other day while Katie was at one of her PT sessions, she had an "episode". Basically her speech slurred, she became disoriented and confused, and lost some strength. The initial thought by the therapist was that she was low blood sugar. They got her some juice and things returned to normal soon. The next day (Friday the 12th) Katie went to her Dr. The Dr did not agree with low blood sugar, but rather thought it was a TIA. A TIA is best described as a "mini stroke". Same symptoms as a stroke (and low blood sugar), but does not last very long and has no lasting effects. So Katie and Sue headed right down to the ER to get checked out. The ER Dr's ran all the tests as well as a CT scan, and everything checked out fine. They agreed that she probably had a TIA, but do not think it was due to a small clot, which is the most common cause. So, they sent Katie home and advised us to meet with the neurologist soon.

What was really neat through this is Katie's attitude. At no time was she worried. In fact she even stopped for a sandwich between the Dr and the ER! I'm trying to talk to her on the phone to find out what is going on, and she's yelling at the drive up guy telling him what she wants on her sandwich!

So we were reminded once again that God is in control and for us to worry is really an exercise in futility. Basically there is nothing we can do other than pray that God will continue to heal Katie and prevent a bigger stroke from happening (TIA's often signal a more serious stroke).

Photos.....

Katie and Sawyer in hospital, about a month ago.

Katie and kids on one of her visits home.

First day of school.

Katie holding Sawyer, two weeks ago.

Bath time!!

Anniversary Update

Well, the anniversary went great. First of all Katie was able to get all dressed up in a great outfit that some of her friends had got her for her birthday. Then we went to the church where we were married 10 yrs ago (Meredith Drive Reformed Church), and said our vows to each other. Again, this is always a bitter sweet event as you are faced with all of your short comings and yet there is great love and emotion, all at the same moment. After that we went to a nice restaurant and had a very nice meal (for those of you in the DSM area, we went to Flying Mango, highly recommend). We then rented a movie and snuggled on the couch. What a great night.

A couple of neat things that came of this night. First of all, every year I have the pleasure of speaking with Jane who is the office administrator for Meredith Drive, and of course this year was even better. She has been following Katie's progress and when she know that Katie would be able to go home, she was sure that she would be hearing from me soon. She was very excited.

Speaking of being home, I can't tell you how many people have commented to me that when I first announced that I was hoping to take Katie to the church that many did not think it would happen. So many are just amazed that the Lord was gracious to us and allowed us to keep this wonderful tradition alive.

Apparently Katie forgot that we don't give each other gifts for our anniversary (her idea, she's a penny pincher) and she got me a little something. Boy did I feel like a "hero" when we go to get in the car and she has a wonderfully wrapped gift for me and I have a card and a smile. She got me a bicycle helmet! I guess one head injury in our family is enough. I couldn't agree more.

Thursday evening

Today was Katie's first day in therapy and it went very well. Katie really liked her speech therapist and surprise, surprise, her Physical therapist is an old friend from Cornerstone Community Church, Amy Johnson. We are so excited and thankful for this. She will get her schedule for the next month tomorrow at therapy, but basically it will consist of three hours of therapy a day, one hour each of speech, physical, and occupational. Most think that the physical and occupational will not last long, and that the speech will really become the focus.

Everyday she continues to get stronger and everyday her mind gets sharper. Katie still struggles with remembering things that have just taken place or conversations that have just happened. All along we have heard it said, the short term is the first to go and the last to come back. Well, we have seen that first hand. But we have nothing to complain about as Katie is alive and doing so well.

Please continue to pray for our wonderful kiddos. Sawyer is doing great under the watchfulness of Karen and my mom Ruth. He's growing right before our eyes, and most importantly he's getting closer and closer to sleeping through the night! Aubree is pretty much immune to all of the flux that is going on. Maybe it's her age, maybe it's her personality, but as I talk to her she is handling this as well as can be expected. She is also handling school very well and we are getting great feedback from her teacher. Tayler is also doing well, all things considered. However, she definitely is more impacted by the changes in our home and the changes in her mommy. Please pray for Tayler. Pray that she will be able make sense of all that is going on, at least as much as a 7 year old should be expected to make. Also pray for wisdom for me that I will have the words and compassion to give them some stability in their very changing world.

Again, I can't say thank you enough for those of you who continue to provide meals. Even though Katie is home, the meals are actually more needed as we have more to feed and less time. And, if you bring a meal you get to see Katie and baby Sawyer. You get to see me too, but seeing Katie and Sawyer should make seeing me tolerable.

Wednesday morning

Well, Katie is finally home. It happened yesterday in the afternoon. Now, she has a lot of follow up Dr visits, and ongoing therapy, but she is home and sleeping in her own bed. We had a great time last night with all the family around. And for those of you praying for Sawyer and mommy to bond, you should have seen the two of them together. I got a couple of pictures that I will try to post in the coming days. Pretty cool.

Today Katie and I are going to Tayler's school to have lunch with her and meet Tays teacher. It will be the first time Katie has been to the school as it just opened this year.

We continue to trust God for complete healing and continue to pray toward that end.

Surprise Birthday Results

Thanks to someone for reminding me that I never did tell you about the surprise party. That's probably because the surprise was on me. Here's what I mean. All day Thursday I kept telling Katie that I was going to go and get the kids and come down and have dinner with her. Around 4:00 she fell asleep. At 5:00 two of her friends came down to give her some presents and wish her a happy birthday. So, while she was checking out her great gifts I look over at her slyly and said, "so, what if we go home and see the girls". To which she said, "ok". This was a surprise to me as all week she had begged me, almost hourly, to take her home to see the kids. Now I was telling her that she could go home and all she could say was, "ok."

Despite her tepid response to my unbelievable thoughtfulness, we had a great party. Kyle, Karen, Ava, the girls, Sawyer, myself and Sue all had a wonderful dinner followed by more family and presents. Cake and ice cream rounded out the night and then a hurried good-bye to get back to the hospital before the doors were locked (9:00).

Katie did a great job and handled all of the commotion splendidly, and everyone was delighted with how eaisly she was able to engage with them.

Saturday evening

Well the first day at home was a success, especially if success is defined by hours spent asleep. Not sure why, but Katie took a three hour nap in the afternoon, and then went to bed around 7. However, the rest of the time was good. She got here around 10:00, had some lunch, watched a movie with the girls, feed Sawyer, and slept.

Man it was good to have her home.

She gets to be home until Sunday evening, as she needs to be back at the hospital by 9:00 pm. As long as this goes ok, she will be back home Tuesday for good. I'll try to keep you all updated as best as I can.

Thursday afternoon

Well, so far I have been able to keep Katie in the dark regarding her B-day party. It's 4:30 and sees sleeping, thinking that I'll be going to get the kids soon to come back and have dinner with her.

She continues to amaze everyone in her therapy sessions. In fact, the hospital has asked if they can use her story as one of their "success stories" to put in some sort of book. Also, the CEO of the hospital has gotten wind of Katie and sent down the hospital's PR rep for a visit.

Today she made brownies in one of her sessions and is excited about eating them tonight with the kids. In a number of the sessions they use games to stimulate Katie both mentally and physically. So, they use card games to stimulate her mind and today they use a bean-bag toss game to work on ballance and addition. So she has to throw the bean-bags while standing on one leg, for example. Then she has to add up the points and see if she beat my score. That's right, she had to play against me. Believe me, it does wonders for our marriage. So, to be fair, I closed one eye, stood farther away, and threw them with my right hand. I still managed to beat her a few times. Before you begin to feel too bad for the sickie, just know that she cheats. Just before I made one of my throws she grabbed my butt. When I turned around she said, "Kyra! (she was the therapist that was closest)". Can you believe that. She tries to distract my toss and then blames it on her therapist. This is what we are talking about when we speak of her higher brain functions, though some might argue that grabbing my rear and blaming it on another woman are "lower" brain functions.

It's been fun to see people who have not had a lot of interaction with Katie through this process come and see her or talk to her on the phone. The other day my Dad was asking me if I felt like Katie's personality had changed at all (which is common with brain injuries). I said, "see for yourself", and handed the phone to Katie. After a 10 minute conversation, Katie gave me back the phone and my Dad was just amazed. He could hardly tell the difference between the old Katie and the one that was talking to him now.

I know some of you may be thinking that it really can't be this good. That all the positive things that I have been posting are just the hopeful longings of a desperate husband. While that is possible, I really don't think that is what is happening. And, the willingness of the hospital to release her backs that up. Throughout this whole blogging thing, I've actually tried to under estimate the good stuff. The fact is, things are usually better than I am letting on. Not that I'm trying to sandbag to garner more support, I'm just making sure that I'm not getting carried away. However, for us here with her all the time, I would say that most would agree that Katie's is 85-90% of her old self. I say this in regards to mentally. Physically she is probably around 50%, but no one is worried about that as we know that will come back quickly now that she is up and about. Actually we are not worried about the mental either, but that, medically speaking, is more up in the air. For those of us who understand God, we know that none of this is up in the air.

Thank you all for all the Birthday post, I know Katie will love to hear them. I'll do my best to read them to her tonight, but considering the amount, I might not get to them all. However, she will read them all, I promise.

Surprise party

This Thursday is Katie's birthday and I have permission to take her home for an hour or so. So, we're going to have a small family party to celebrate, but I thought that if any of you wanted to post a birthday wish I could read them to her. So post her a relatively short birthday wish and I will read them to her at the party. Make sure and include your name and how you know her, if in fact you do.

Monday Night

Ok, here is the news we all have been waiting for. Katie is going home!! First off, she is going to come home Saturday morning, stay Saturday night, and then go back to the hospital Sunday night. Based on how she does (and everyone thinks she will do fine) she will be discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. For good! Each week all of the therapist and Dr's/nurses get together and review each patients progress and set new goal for the coming week. Basically, after one week the therapist are so impressed with her progress that they are sending her home. She will still do therapy at another facility a few times a week, but she will be home.

My mom Ruth is going to come this weekend and stay for three weeks, and Kyle and Karen are planning on staying for a week or so until we are all sure that Katie is ok. Katie's mother lives directly behind out house and will be with Katie all day as she will still need some help for a while. One of the reasons the staff gave for letting Katie go is her strong family support. This is mostly Sue, as she has been the one who has spent the most time with Katie at the hospital, and for that I am truly grateful. However, without Kyle and Karen I would not have been able to spend hardly any time with Katie, so a huge "thank you" goes out to them as well.

I also would be remiss to not add all of you. From providing dinners to constant prayer, and Target gift cards, the collective church family has been amazing. So from our family to all of you, thanks.

Saturday afternoon

Last two days continue to be good ones. Each day Katie gets a little bit better on her short term memory. She still is always interested in what "the plan" is in regards to a couple of things. Mostly the kids, but she is also interested in what my plan is. This is tough as we are constantly filling her in on what "the plan" is, but she seems to lose it quickly. I think it's mostly because she is very concerned about the kids and when the memory is not right there she asks. However, she is getting better at knowing the details and I have to tell her less and less each day.

Here is something that's pretty cool. Katie's main speech therapist told Sue the other day that she has never worked with anyone like Katie. Now she has worked with lots of people who have brain trauma, but none like Katie for this reason. Katie is demonstrating most, if not all, of her higher brain functions. Things like humor, self evaluation, empathy, etc.... These are things that usually take a long time to come back, if they every do, but Katie has demonstrated them right from the beginning.

Last night Dawn (one of Katie's best friends) spent the night with Katie and here is what she sent me this morning....

A great night. I appreciate the fact that Katie sleeps like the rest of us now. She needs it dark and quiet. All the other nights, I read until about midnight while she was sleeping and never worried about whispering to any of the nurses. This time, I went to bed when she went to bed b/c she wanted it dark and quiet...like any of us would! Perfect! What difference 3 days makes! I didn't see her Tues-Thrs. And when I got there on yesterday, I about fell over when I saw the improvement in her strength and balance. It's out of this world! Of course, I still followed her everywhere. I heard her telling Chad on the phone this morning, "Dawn jumps every time I move." :) I love to be annoying! She's totally looking forward to her day w/ the family. Have a great time! Also, I know it was probably tough when Katie thought you were the one keeping her in the hospital, but she told me this morning that she wants to go home so bad, but they have pretty strict rules at the hospital and she doesn't know all of the rules, but she knows that they can't keep letting her out a lot until she's finished with all her therapy. You might not be the bad guy anymore...at least you weren't this morning. At one point she even said, "Davey's great."

D

Today I took all the kids up to spend a couple of hours with Katie. We even went outside to a small park that's right outside Katie's window for a little while as today was an absolutely beautiful day. While we were outside a few nurses from the ICU stopped by to see the "miracle girl". Poor Katie is almost beside herself missing the kids and talks about them all the time. She still has a hard time understanding why I can't just take her home for a few hours every day. In the end though, Sawyer need to get to sleep and Katie's room just didn't seem to suit him.


Here is the last thing. Yesterday I took Katie down to the cafeteria and we had supper together. After that I took her on a little tour of some of the hospital. I took her by the waiting room where all the family and friends gathered on that very first morning. It started Katie asking questions and in the end I told her the whole story, and I didn't leave anything out. She took it well and it really helped her to understand why some people just like to sit in her room and just smile at her (like me).

Thursday night

Therapy continues to go well. Every day Katie gets a little bit more back and each day she remembers more and more. No longer am I accused of loosing one of our babies! Thank you Jesus. The therapist at Younkers are doing a wonderful job and they continue to creatively challenge Katie at every turn. Sue has also done a great job of taking pictures of important people and things in Katie's life, then they are put into a memory book that Katie reviews at almost every session, especially Speech therapy.

So, Katie and I pulled off a big surprise today. Knowing how much Katie wants to go home, I got special permission for her to take a leave of absence from the hospital and go home for an hour. We had to double check with everyone, including the insurance company, but all the Dr's and therapist were comfortable with Katie being gone. However, I did make sure that Katie signed a piece of paper saying that she would return to the hospital by a certain time, knowing that she would just want to stay at home. So, imagine the look on the kids face (mostly the girls, Sawyer pretty much had the same look) as Katie walks up and rings the doorbell! I will say though, the one who was most excited to see Katie was definitely our dog Scooter. Man did he miss his momma! I can't believe he didn't wet himself he was going so crazy. She did so well, even going up and down our two flights of stairs. Her strength is still low, but her coordination is defiantly there. We all had a great time, and in the end, Katie reluctantly went back to the hospital.

So think about this, from death's door to the front door in 35 days! Only God is capable of this kind of turnaround. Again, I want to say thank you to all of you who are faithfully praying for us daily! What happened today is a direct result of your intercession for us before our Lord. I also want to say a special thank you to the other two leaders at Two Rivers (and their faith filled wives), Rob and Mark, for their commitment to come and pray powerful prayers over Katie.

Wednesday afternoon

Lots of good stuff today. First off, no changes on the medical front. Katie continues to be on a blood thinner regiment, and it appears to be handling the clots. However, we are keeping a close eye on her leg. Other than that, she is no longer on any meds that I am aware of. She's not even getting nourishment from her feeding tube, and we should be able to have it removed in the next week or so.

So, as you can see in the previous post, therapy dominates her day. But, Katie is taking it on and doing very well. All of her therapist are very happy with her progress. Here are a few examples.

Last Friday a speech therapist asked Katie to draw a clock. She drew a circle and then put a row of numbers in a straight line from the top of the circle to the bottom and then back up again. Then the therapist asked her to put the arms on the clock, so Katie drew another circle with arms on it. Today, the therapist asked her to repeat the exercises and Katie did it perfectly. The therapist then asked her to put the arms on clock to show 11:10, and she did it perfectly. Big progress in less than a week.

In physical therapy, today they had her walking around a small track while hitting a balloon in front of her. Then she had to go around the track while kicking the balloon in front of her. Both were accomplished with relative ease.

She also beat me and a therapist in a game of UNO, and if you know me I didn't let her win just because she is sick!

Katie still continues to need help with her short term memory. For example, Rob and Mark came by this afternoon to pray over Katie. Just before we prayed I was telling them a story from today and Katie looked at me like I was crazy and said "that didn't happen." I've learned not to argue with her at this point, so I let it drop. So, right before we began to pray, she told me I needed to confess my lie so my prayers would not be hindered. We all got a good laugh. So we prayed specifically for her eyes and memory (and I quietly cast out the large number of demons that are obviously in her).

Rob last saw Katie about a week ago, and he said that she is about 400x better than the last time he saw her. Believe me when I say, we won't be her long!

Tuesday afternoon

Therapy continues to go well for Katie. She seems to have more energy today, either because she is off of the muscle relaxer, or she's getting stronger. Probably a little of both. Here is what her schedule is.

6:30 - Shower (FYI, Katie chose this, not me)
7:30 - Breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 - Physical therapy
10:00 - 10:30 - Occupational therapy
10:30 - 11:00 - Speech therapy

11:30 - Lunch

2:00 - 2:30 - Recreational therapy
2:30 - 3:30 - Physical therapy

4:30 - Supper

Well, I'm exhausted from typing all that out, so I think I will take a nap now. Apparently the early bird special is popular here with the 4:30 supper!?! Needless to say, they keep Katie moving. However, Katie is very goal oriented, so she takes on most of her therapy with drive and determination.

One thing that has been difficult lately is that she is really wanting to go home. The hard part is, she thinks that it's my decision to keep her here and gets upset at me. Now I can handle her upset at me (we've been married 10 yrs and it's happened a time or two), I just hate to think of her in this condition thinking that I'm the one that's keeping her from home. One of my cousins from Michigan is getting us bar-b-que from my favorite restaurant (Famous Dave's, aka...Famous Davey's) and she was not happy that she couldn't go home and have some. At least she remembers Famous Dave's food!

All in all things continue to move forward nicely and we shouldn't be here too much longer!

Update from Dawn

Dawn is one of Katie's best friends. She is Mark's better half and together they are a huge part of Two Rivers Church. She spent this morning with Katie until I could get there. Here is what she told me in her own words.


Katie, as you saw when you first arrived, has been very concerned about if it's AM or PM and about the kids. She also woke up and said she was hoping it was Sunday b/c she was planning on going to church today. I told her that hopefully next Sunday she could go, which I (maybe in error) began telling her that next Sunday was the baptism. She said, "Oh, so Aubree...she was planning on that. I know I have her signed up for that, but I'm going to have to talk to Davey about that." It was such a normal conversation, that I told her that Rudy (Dawns adopted son) was planning on getting baptized as well, but I'm not sure if I have him on the list. Katie told me not worry and she was sure they would fit him in. I asked her if we had to write something for the kids to read before their baptism. She said, "I'm sure we need to help them write something...I know we did for Tayler when she was baptized." HOW FREAKING AWESOME is that?! Then another thing that she talked a lot about was her left eye. She talked about being frustrated and worried that her eye was just going to be like that. The nurse who we asked about getting her off that muscle relaxer explained that as the brain heals that the eye will improve and KT was very glad to hear that. Katie really wants you and Rob and Mark to pray for her eye to be healed today. I prayed for her as well and when I finished praying out loud, KT prayed total healing on her eye as well and gave the situation to God, trusted Him completely for healing and claimed God's promises over her healing. Very powerful. We tested the eye out when we were done praying, she said something to the effect of "Not, yet." But we remembered that God calls into existence things that are not yet...and we also remembered that the word of God does not go out to return empty and he will heal her vision (FYI - Katie's eye is looking better today, it's lining up better with the right one. Power of prayer). She is such a hard worker and doing great! She mentioned missing you many times this morning, but she also remembered that you are taking good care of the girls and that you "have a lot on your plate." Katie talked about her "brain bleed" and asked me when it happened if I though she was a "goner." I told her that I knew God would make her well. She smiled her beautiful smile. It is a humbling, powerful, wonderful thing to watch her in therapy and to see you and your family being so taken care of.

Monday am

Sunday was a fun day, as we brought the whole family up for a visit. My brother James and his wife Eryn and two of their kids were headed back to St. Louis so they came with us and had a quick visit with Katie. Again, with Sawyer there, Katie was able to do a little snuggling and fed him his bottle. Dawn had previously brought some fun stuff for the girls to do (games, crayons, etc...) so the kids all drew pictures for Katie while we visited. It was so good to have James and Eryn as they took the night feedings so that Karen and I could get some rest. Also, James is still a kid at heart and he spent a lot of time tiring out the older kids.

Kyle and Karen's 6th anniversary was on Sunday, so they went to a movie, had a nice dinner, and spent the night in a hotel. Sue came home and watched Ava (Kyle and Karen's daughter, almost 2yrs old) and I took the night feedings. Man do I appreciate Karen!

This morning our neighbor Jen took the girls to school (their school is on our street so they walk to school) and I headed to my office to take care of a few things. I got to the hospital around 10 to find Katie in the middle of therapy. She was doing some strength exercises, and said, "this is too easy." So I suggested they get heavier weights, Katie said that wasn't necessary. After Occupational therapy we were off to Speech. Speech is kind of deceiving as it really is more of cognitive therapy as they really work with memory, reading, writing, and problem solving. Other than being tired, Katie is doing very well.

Katie's Dr of internal medicine is going to take her off of the muscle relaxers they have been giving her for her stiff neck as they think it's making her tired. They are increasing her blood thinners as her blood is too thick right now. Other than that, everything on the medical front is going very well. We are still waiting on her swelling to go the rest of the way down to see how her eyes will respond. Not sure when the next CT scan will be, but it should be in the next week or so. Katie told Dawn this morning that she wants Mark, Rob, and myself (leaders of Two Rivers Church) to come and pray for her eye (based on James 5). Dawn prayed over her and when she was done, Katie prayed for herself.

Katie's memory does seem to be improving as there are times that see really surprises us. Sue was taking Katie back to her room yesterday when Katie started yelling (in a nice voice) at a couple walking away from them down the hall. It turns out they were recent clients of hers, and she recognized them from a distance, walking away from her! This next week at church we are have a baptism at Saylorville Lake, and we were planning on having Aubree baptized as she excepted Christ as her savior this last year. I decided to hold off as I want Katie to be there. However, Katie did remember that when Tayler was baptized that we helped her write her "testimony" to be read at the baptism, as she was concerned about getting that done for Aubs.

Katie does struggle with "immediate" things. Mostly like what time of day it is. She typically thinks it's afternoon when it's morning. She has a hard time with current date, year, etc...

Things are going so well and we couldn't be happier. We continue to praise God for all that He is doing. We are also so thankful to all you out there that are praying and supporting us.

New Room

FYI- Katie is now in Younkers 419

Saturday Noon

Friday was a busy day for all concerned. For me, I took the girls to school in the morning and then jumped in my car and drove to Dubuque (3 hrs) for an business appointment. After that I visited my brother Johnny who is going to school at Emmaus Bible College (where Katie and I first started seeing each other). Then about 4pm I headed home as one of my other brothers James and his wife Eryn were coming for the weekend from St. Louis to give Karen, Kyle, and I a break.

So, I didn't get to see Katie at all on Friday, but I did get to talk to her on the phone a couple of times which was really neat. Sue did keep me updated and Katie had a great Friday doing some rehab. It's really cool what the therapist are having her do and how well she is accomplishing the tasks. Most of all they are keeping her busy as she has 4-6 therepy sessions a day, each one lasting 30-60 mins.

Today I took care of a few things at home and then headed down to the rehab center (which is technically attached to the hospital). As I walked in she was working with the Occupational therapist working on some math problems. One of the things that they do to help with the vision is put an eye patch on her. So I asked her to do her best pirate "arghhhhh", which she did. Next they moved on to practicing writing checks. The exercise is less about the check and more about writing, dates, and numbers. Katie did great on it all. She even signed her name.

Yesterday Katie was working with one of her therapist and she asked her how long she would be here. The therapist said, "don't hold me to this, but I would guess 3-4 weeks". Wow, we could be home in another month. One thing that still is a concern is her eyes. No one is really able to give us a straight answer, mostly because there are a lot of variables. However, most think that as the rest of the swelling goes down and the blood dissipates, her eyes will correct themselves. The problem is no one knows for sure.

Another thing is that the nurse is asking that we have someone with her at all times as she is able to get up very quickly and they are worried about her falling. So, we'll be working on a schedule to keep someone with her at all times.

We are very encouraged as it is so much fun to see her progress so quickly.

Thursday Afternoon

Well, the big move happened. Goodbye North 3 and hello Younkers 422. For all you local people, go to the back of the hospital like you were going to the maternity wing, take the elevators to the fourth floor. We are room 422. The nurse is suggesting that if you come to visit that evenings are going to be best. If you need to come during the day, the weekend is best. Katie will need her rest during the day as they will be working her pretty hard.

Let me tell you these rooms are awesome. It's more like a hotel suite than a hospital room. We have a very good sized room, shower, terrific view of a beautiful courtyard, and a flat screen w/dvd. My guess is they want you to feel as good as possible before they work you to death, I mean life. It appears that Katie's schedule is going to be pretty regulated as they have already asked me when she wants her shower. One option was 6:30am, and I picked that one to get back at Katie for wanting to "off" me the other day. I just have to remember to not get here before around 11:00am so she has time to forget that rude awakening. Of course I'm just kidding.

Katie had another good day. One of the notables is that she picked up a pen and was writing. She was able to look through a page full of words and pick out certain letters. So we are excited that she probably won't have to relearn too much in regards to reading and writting. It looks like most of her rehab will be remembering things and working on that eyesight (if there is things we can do for her eyes, not sure other than pray of course).

The girls had their first day of school today, and had a great day. Neither one of them could care less about me as then both charged off to their class and went right in. At the end of the day they both said that it was great. A neat thing is that it's a brand new school, and it's at the end of the street so we were able to walk to school and then back again. Two neighbors have offered to take the girls and then pick them up after school, so that will be a big help.

Sawyer was able to make a quick appearance today. Katie had called me this morning asking that I bring him in as she felt like she needed to get to know him. It was a good time as I put Sawyer in bed with her and they snuggled. Also, it was time for his bottle and Katie was able to feed him. I got some very cool pictures.

Ok, now for the comedy. Katie is convinced that we have two babies (four kids is all). She and I had a half hour conversation about how the only baby we have is Sawyer (thank God in heaven for that). She is convinced that I've lost the other baby. So she was asking me how old Sawyer is, and I said 5 weeks. She asked me how long she was pregnant with him and I said 9 months. To which she replied, "that's so much bull!" So, I asked her how long she thought she was pregnant with him, and she said, "3 months, tops". Another time she was going to the bathroom and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. "Oh my", she said. Sue told her that she looked good with the short hair. "You have to be kidding", was Katie's response.

One month. It's been one month to the day that we first went to the ER for Katie's headache. Wow, what a month. A couple of times I've read back through the blog and postings on other sites, remembering those first few hours and days. It seems so long ago, but yet still very vivid. It's cool to see how far we've come, but can you imagine where we will be one month from now!?! I think we should start a pool to see who can call the day that we check out of the hospital and go home.

Wednesday Evening

Wow, what another great day. To start off with, last night Katie got up three times during the night and went to the bathroom with some help. But, by the end of today she was basically getting up and walking, without a walker, to the restroom and back by herself. It does strike me as odd how easy it is to talk about Katie's bathroom habits, but any of you who know my wife, know that going pee is a very regular event. Therefore, it would figure that it would play into her rehab quite prominently. So, physically Katie is very close to being all thumbs up. She is of course still very weak comparatively speaking, but we have very few issues with her body.

Also on the physical front. The vascular surgeon and the internal medicine dr have both cleared her for rehab. She is being taken off of all of her IV's and is able to now take a pill for all needed meds. This means that we will be headed to the rehab wing of Methodist (it's called Yonkers Rehab), in the next day or so. This is great news, though we will be sad to say goodbye to all our friends on North 3.

While we are excited about Katie's physical improvements, it's the cognitive ones that we are most excited about. Every day she continues to move forward. Today she was rattling off names, places, and events, all with very little hesitation. One therapist was telling Katie about his family and then quizzing her on what he said. This is where it gets though for her. Her very short term memory still has some holes in it. I had to tell her between 10-55,000 times that Sawyer was being watched by Karen and a neighbor (Laura) had Tayler and Aubs. This is good, as she is now very concerned about the well being of the kids, which is a first (since the surgery that is, she's a great mom). She even told Amy her cousin that she felt like she needed to get out of the hospital because she wasn't being a very good mother. We try to alleviate this concern of hers, but the problem is that she asks the same question again 10 mins later. Again, the very short term memory has some holes.

That said, everyone is extremely pleased with her progress. Her vision is still giving us some pause as one eye continues to be a little lazy and we are pretty sure she is seeing double. Please pray for continued healing of her vision as that will be very important to her cognitive rehab.

I'll leave you with this. A nurse told me today that she gets the chills every time she's in the room with Katie as she knows that medically speaking Katie should be dead, or at the very least, in a persisted vegetative state. But instead, she's interacting with the Dr's and nurses trying to see if there is anything she can do to help. I'm actually very thankful that there was really nothing that the Dr's could or can do for Katie, as every time you or I see her we can (I say "can" because we are prone to forget) remind ourselves that we serve an omnipotent God who is still in the business of raising the dead (both physically and spiritually).

Tuesday night

What can I say, other than I'm a broken record, but we had another good day today. I'm going to keep it short as it's getting late. Again, medically not much has changed other than the Vascular Dr has approved PT. So Katie was up today and even walked to the bathroom twice, which is a big move forward as this gets us closer to formal rehab. They have been giving Katie muscle relaxers to help her with her sore neck and jaw. This has helped as now she is able to open her mouth more and therefore is able to eat some real food. They have also turned off her feeding tube during the day to help her want to eat more during the day. Which she did, eating a few good meals today, which she did mostly by herself.

She continues to be easily annoyed as she is struggling to understand what is exactly going on. This puts us in a tough situation. Katie knows enough to understand she doesn't like something, but isn't able to process the logic behind the treatments. Those of you who are real junkies of this blog will remember a very early post on Meredith's blog that basically said that "our little control freak is not in control and doesn't like it". Well that has never been more true than now.

Katie is answering lots of questions very well and her memory is getting clearer and clearer all the time. It's very tough to describe but today I saw more of Katie than any other day yet. Every other day has been fun to be with her, but it wasn't exactly the Katie that I know so well. But today a lot of the interactions felt "familiar".

Speaking of "familiar", I'll leave you with a couple of funny stories. The speech therapist was asking her to name family members, which she was, and at one point she asked Katie what her husband's name is. "I don't have a husband" was her reply (again, with a wink to me). Katie's cousin Tammie was in today for a little while today and at one point I was explaining to Katie why she couldn't do something. Of course this did not go over well with her and she leans over to Tammie and says, "can you take out my husband, I'll make it worth your while." So, I'll be sleeping with one eye open tonight.

Monday Night

Busy day today, for all concerned. First of all my day (since I am really the one your interested in). The very first nurse that we had the first night was named Sue. Sue's husband (Eric) is a professional photographer and offered to do a shoot with the kids for free. So, this morning we packed up the family and headed over to the studio. Karen did a great job of picking outfits for the three and the kids did a great job of just being adorable. Sawyer was on his best behavior and made his daddy proud. Eric did a great job of getting awesome poses out of the kids and we are really looking forward to seeing the prints.

I took everyone back home and then headed down to the hospital. Over the lunch hour I had a leader meeting for church with Rob and Mark. It's been a crazy month for the church and we had a lot to talk about. Most of it good, however, some of you will be getting a visit soon. We almost had to cancel our meeting as Mark had to go to his Dr's office to get a few staples. The story is he dropped a tool on his head, but I think Dawn took a swipe at him and he doesn't want to admit it. After the meeting we had a good time of prayer over Katie.

I stayed at the hospital for a few hours and then headed home as I had to go to a meeting at Aubree's school for all kindergartners parents. After the meeting I went home, had a bite to eat, tucked the girls in bed, and headed outside to mow the lawn.

I say all this in an effort to make an elaborate excuse for not getting the post up sooner. I pray that you fall for it and feel deep sorrow for me. Thank you for your support.

Now to Katie. A lot of what happened today was relayed to me by Sue, though I did some good interactions with her this afternoon. Again, no real changes on the medical front other than a few minor developments. First of all, the Infectious Disease Dr's are back, and this time they found something. Katie has a bladder infection, which is pretty much guaranteed when you have a catheter for a month. So, the Dr prescribed some antibiotics and ordered that the catheter to come out. This is a good development and Katie is now able to control these functions and starting tomorrow should be able to get out of bed to go.

The swelling in Katie's leg is basically all gone, and the nurses are very excited about the clots being gone. There was no real reason for Katie not to be able to walk today other than the Dr being out of town.

This morning the Speech Pathologist was asking Katie a bunch of questions and she was answering them very easily. We've asked her where she lives a number of times and she has never been able to get it right, but today she spit it out without thinking. So, we continue to make big gains on the mental front.

However we did have some regression today. Up to this point Katie has been very nice for the most part, and whenever she was making fun of someone, there was always a smile to follow it up letting you know she was kidding. The morning was good, but by this afternoon things went South. Katie was mad that she couldn't get out of bed. I told her that we need the Dr to approve it and he was gone. She thought she should be able to get out of bed and go and see the Dr. She was also not happy with all of the tubes hooked up to her and was trying to pull them out. I told her about getting the pictures taken and she was mad that I didn't take her. I tried to explain to her that she is in the hospital and couldn't go. At this point, her mom asked her if she knew what hospital she was in. Katie's response was to tell Sue that she is Number One (and not the nice way). I finally got tired of arguing with Katie and I ended up telling her that I did ask her if she wanted to go to the pictures, but she didn't want to. "That's so much bull," was her response. There was a lot more, but I think you get the point.

While that's not the Katie that we know, it's not unexpected and we've had numerous Dr's tell us that with brain injuries things will come out of her mouth that will surprise us. The injury will accentuate certain aspects of her personality beyond what she would normally show.

All in all it was a very good day and Katie is making big strides cognitatively, now on the the PT!

Sunday Evening

Again, not much on the medical front to report. Her PT has been pushed off because the Vascular Surgeon is out of town until Monday night, so he will be in to see her Tuesday and let us know if we are good to go. BP continues to be controlled by meds, and the control is good. Her blood thinner has been pushed up to a relatively high level and still no adverse reactions (ie. brain bleeding). The nurses regularly check her mental status as that will be the first indication that there is pressure on her brain.

As far as her mental status, we continue to move forward. Apparently Sunday afternoon is a time when people are free to visit. At one time we had 8 visitors in her room, and she handled it well, even finding time to talk to her friend Dawn on the phone for a few minutes. Katie did have a first time visitor today that is worth mentioning. Today I took Sawyer to church for the first time. The girls went swimming with some friends after church, and I took Sawyer to see his momma. It was so funny because at first I had to convince her that Sawyer was her baby. When I held him up and said, "this is your baby boy", she scowled at me and said, "that's so much bull". Michelle (a friend who was visiting at the time) and I both lost it. After a few minutes of insisting and showing her pictures of her with Sawyer, she relented. It was so cool to see her holding him and loving on him like any good mother would. She was not real excited about me hovering over her and Sawyer, and let me know it. She had a hard time managing his wobbly head, though she was holding his body just fine, I was just making sure his head was supported. Overall it was a very good time as Sawyer handled it well and I could see a spark in Katie's eyes too.

She still has her witty sense of humor (I think she's actually funnier than before). At one point Sue said to Katie, "that Davey's a pretty good dad, huh." To which Katie replied, "yeah, he's alright." While she was saying it though she winked at me (well, more like a blink, but I got it). I wish that I could write all of the interactions that we have with her, as I have rarely laughed this hard, but I really don't have the energy. Just know that we are getting our Katie back and we are loving it. However, I don't want to downplay how far we still have to go. Her eyes are still not working correctly and she is still not able to complete long thoughts. Her speech is very clear, its just that she looses the thought mid-sentence. So, we covet your continued prayer.

Again my prayer for this week is that PT moves along nicely and we end up in rehab by the end of the week. The last time I said that, she developed blood clots. Let's hope this time is different.

We continue to get your cards and gifts and I can't tell you how much of a help that has been for our family. It's so awesome to know so many of you care so much. Just know that your making a big difference in the lives of our family.

Saturday Afternoon

Not much to report today medically speaking. Things seem to kind of slow down on the weekend a bit. Speech pathology was in and was working with Katie on eating again. Katie would have no trouble eating whatever she wanted other than she is having a hard time opening her jaw. It appears that her jaw muscles are sore (not sure why, maybe clenching at night), and thus she is not able to open her teeth very far. It was cool today for me to see her take a cup of juice in her hand and drink it all by herself, without spilling it. She couldn't do that before the surgery. However, she is able to move her jaw enough to give me a hard time, much to the delight of whoever is here at that moment. I'm beginning to think she is putting on an act as she's all sugar when we are alone. I suppose I do the exact same thing on this blog, so we are even.

Had a few visitors today and all of them left very encouraged as Katie is able to recognize them and have good discussions. She even called (I dialed) her Grandma Janice and talked to her for a few minutes. I was impressed as she made sense most of the time.

Sorry there is not more, but at this point, we don't want any new developments medically. As far as cognitively, every day we are seeing improvements, though small. Someone told me that it takes 3 days of rehab to make up for 1 day in bed. So, be praying for Monday as she will begin PT again, and that will be hard considering how long Katie's been in bed.

Friday Afternoon

Another good day today. I brought the girls down today and we had a great time as Katie was a lot more with it. She was excited to see them and we all sat around and ate some sherbet. Aubree is not fazed by much and so was practically in bed with Katie talking to her and showing her pictures. Tayler is a little more cautious and was content to stand back a little bit and watch. All in all the girls handled the situation very well and I think it was good for them and for Katie too (when the girls left she blew them kisses).

The veritable stream of Dr's continues to flow through the room though I think we saw the last of the infectious disease Dr's today. They have looked as hard as they can and they still cannot find any infections. The cause of the fever continues to be blamed on the blood still in her head. The Vascular Dr says that on Monday Katie can get out of bed and do some walking. I guess that is when the hard part comes, rehab. Good to know as I was beginning to think everything we've gone through so far was far to easy to warrant all the attention. I think a lot of the Dr's like to come by just to see Katie and not because they have anything in particular to do or say. I'm thinking of charging admission if they don't at least listen to her heart.

Katie got her staples out today as the wound on her head, from the skull plate being put back in, is healing nicely. Also, I would say 80-90% of the external swelling on her head has gone. This is also evident as everyone who visits comments on how good she looks.

Katie continues to struggle finishing her thoughts. She's great at starting sentences, but has a hard time completing them. We're also not sure how well her eyes are working. She can definitely see as she can identify most everyone as soon as they walk in the room, but when you hand her a picture she constantly moves it around as if trying to find a way to make it clear. Most of these issues should resolve as the rest of the swelling in her brain subsides, but we'll have to wait and see to be sure. Please continue to pray for complete restoration of Katie's mind and sight.

I feel like I need to post a quick note of clarification about myself. Many have asked me how I've stayed so strong through all of this. The reality is that on Friday morning, the 18th of July, I demonstrated my strength by almost completely loosing it. What changed between that Friday morning and most every day since is God. Everything changed when I took my eyes off of the situation and focused them on God. My peace is really a result of my deep, personal relationship with the creator of the universe. Once I reminded myself of who was really in control, the fear left. Imagine your big strong dad walking into your room as a child and scarring all the boggy men away (real or imagined), that was me. Religion did not help me. Good works did not bring peace. Education did not comfort my fears. In the end it was my God and Savior, who demonstrated his love for me by allowing his true son (Jesus) to die on a cross because of my sin, who wrapped his arms around his scarred little boy and held him tight. Please don't mistake my strength for His.

Thursday Noon

slacker here-

I just got off the phone with my brother Rex who called wanting to make sure that everything was alright since I didn't post yesterday. Let me assure you, in this case, no news is good news. If something bad was happening, you all would be the third to know (behind leaders at church and family). But, I must apologize to you all, there really is no excuse for no post, I just didn't get it done.

The last two days have been very good. Wednesday was pretty laid back as there was no big changes. The swelling in the leg has continued to go down, and the vascular surgeon says that in a few days she should be able to get back up and do some more PT as the blood thinners are working well. This is quicker than I was guessing, so that is good news as the sooner she can get up and around the better. Her hemoglobin has been going up and down, but the Dr's think that it's because she has been low on iron (she was low iron during the pregnancy). The Dr's continue to be amazed at her progress and strength, and are very positive about the future for Katie. Here is something cool, a neuro clinical nurse specialist came by as a consultant to the nurses here on North 3, and she says that in her 23 years of neuro work she has never seen anything like Katie before. That's our little miracle girl.

Over the last two days she has been more talkative then any other time to date. Unfortunately most of her wit and sarcasm is directed at me, and if I'm not around her mom gets it. She's even making the Dr's laugh at their discussions with her. Today she as been asking the Dr's what she needs to be doing, and this usually takes them by surprise. Most say nothing, but than Katie says to us later, "I think I really need to be doing something."

Yesterday, Katie was getting a pill the hard way (if you know what I mean) and so I stepped out of the room. Katie asked the nurse where I went and she said, "oh, he stepped out but he'll be back." To which she replied, "Dave needs a suppository!" This morning I had a little surprise, Katie called me on my cell phone while I was home. We talked for about 10 minutes. I asked how she felt and she said she's exhausted! I asked her why, and she said because of a real estate deal she was working on. Katie's aunt Jane brought a present for Sawyer up so that Katie could see it, it was a couple little outfits and a blanket, but it reminded Katie that she needed to work on Sawyers clothes closet (don't worry, Sawyers closet and dresser are just fine). This was good as there have been times when she doesn't remember that she even had a baby.

The kids are having a big day as well. Tay and Aubs are joining Mark and Dawn and their kids at the Iowa State Fair. The girls are most excited about corn dogs. Sawyer and Karen are making their first outing to Target to pick up a few things. School starts a week from today, so pray that I can get the little squirts back on a routine of going to bed before 10pm, or next Thursday morning will be a rude awakening.

Katie was getting a little frustrated with me a few minutes ago because I was typing on the computer instead of talking with her (her mom, uncle, and brother were with her so don't act all mad at me for ignoring my sick wife). She wanted to know what I was doing, and so I told her I was letting about 20,000 of her closest friends know what was going on with her. She got mad at me because she thought I was lying to her. So Kyle and Sue reaffirmed to her that I was in fact telling the truth and that there were people all over the world reading the blog and praying for her. "Wow", was her response. As is all of ours. Thanks.

ps- Sue is keeping a very detailed diary of the daily events, Dr's who came by, people who visited, etc... And Karen and I are taking pictures and video of the girls and Sawyer. Thanks for the ideas.

Tuesday Evening

Not much to report today. The good news is that the swelling in Katie's leg has gone down, which can mean that the clot is dissipating. Today they took some blood to test and see how the anti-coagulant is working. As of now I haven't heard back on the results. She was alert a lot more today as she has fully rested from her big Saturday. Again it appears that Katie's preferred awake time is around 5 am, which is unfortunate for the person staying with her at night. We also had some very good time with her early in the afternoon. She even sat up and ate a few bites (and told me she wasn't sure about my ability to handle the house). She's obviously still delirious.

Lew, Katie's granddad, thinks that I am being, or should be, paid by Methodist hospital for all of the good press that I have been giving them, but I must give credit where credit is due. All of the nurses that Katie has had have been wonderful but I must mention Toby (her real name is October, how cool is that?). Toby was Katie's first nurse when we first got to North 3, and she already knew about Katie from the blog even before we got here. It was Toby who noticed Katie's swollen leg yesterday and got us started on the clot treatment. So, from the family, we just wanted to say a big thank you for being so attentive (I prefer cash, but a check will do nicely).

The girls seem to be doing better since they came to see Katie on Sunday. I did get scolded for coming home so late last night. However, all was forgiven once I explained why I had to stay so late (try explaining anti-coagulant to a 5 year old). My plan is to wait a day or so until Katie is good and rested and then bring them up when she is good and alert.

I wish I had more to post, but I feel like I've told you about everything, except maybe her catheter (she is a peeing machine!).

Update

The procedure went fine. The Dr was pleased with how everything turned out. So now we wait. One problem is that she needs to be up walking to keep blood clots from forming. Now, she cannot be up as that could cause the clots to travel. So, we'll have to wait and see. Keep praying that God will dissipate the clots Himself and that her rehab will get back on schedule.

Update Urgent Prayer

The Vascular Dr recommended putting a filter in her vein in hopes that it will catch any clots that would begin to "travel". So, right now the Dr is putting the filter in through a vein in her neck. The filter will end up somewhere in her lower abdomen. He is also hoping to start Katie on a low dose of anti-coagulant (blood thinner). The Neurosurgeons are not real excited about this, but they have concented. So, we are in a catch 22. Anti-coagulants are by far and away the best way to handle this situation, but it's also not the best thing for her brain bleed. So, another chance for God to show his greatness by taking care of Katie in a situation where the Dr's don't have all the answers.

URGENT PRAYER

This afternoon we got Katie up to do a little walking and we noticed her right leg was a little swollen. The nurse immediately ordered an ultrasound to see if there are any clots in the leg. Katie has numerous clots all up and down her leg. Usually they give patients like Katie a blood thinner to keep this from happening, but because of the brain bleed this is really not an option. So, a vascular team is being called to decide what the next step is. This is a critical situation so please pray. Also, no fear!! If God can handle a brain bleed He can handle a clot or two, or twenty.

Monday afternoon

Another good day for Katie, though as we expected she is still a little out of it. Dawn (a close friend) spent the night with her, and it appears that one of Katie's alert times is early morning, as they had some good conversations before the sun came up. She also interacted well with her mom early this morning.

PT was in around lunch and had her up walking and then sitting in a chair. Apparently she slept funny as her neck is really sore and she has a hard time looking to her left. So, while she was sitting in her chair I rubbed her neck and shoulders. Reminded me of old times, like when I would rub her shoulders at home (I guess that was only 3 weeks ago).

Occupational Therapy was just in and was having Katie work on some basic grooming skills (i.e. washing her face). Katie didn't do so well as she kept falling asleep.

Good thing we got her the feeding tube as I think that she would really have a hard time eating enough to be healthy at this time. Also, the meds they are giving her through the tube are more effective than the IV and so they have stopped monitoring her BP every hour and have moved to every 4 hours.

We continue to have friends and family stop by, which is a good thing as long as we keep the visits short and sweet. Speaking of family, I just want to say how cool it is that her granddad Lew (from the Clarkson side) has been by to see her everyday but one since she's been in the hospital. He's 89.

She's sleeping now and must be upset as she is mumbling in her sleep. Probably dreaming of me.

Sunday afternoon

Many of you have asked about Sawyer so I wanted to post a picture for you. In this one he is about 3hrs old and just got eye slime put on by the nurse, but he's still my boy!

Today I took the girls to see Katie for the first time. I know how many of you were praying so, God must have decided that it was better for Katie not to interact with the girls at all. She slept the entire time. We started off by going to church, which was great, but also weird. I'm the worship leader at Two Rivers, but this morning I sat in the audience while a friend named Lynn filled in. He did wonderful, but it was weird. The girls had a great time seeing all their friends and it really felt like normal just being there (other than my weirdness).

So right after church we went to the hospital.....and watched Katie sleep. I was able to show the girls the staples in her head, the machines that are giving her her food, and the machine that is giving her her meds. Aubree was interested, but Tayler was content to sit back and just observe. Before we left we all gathered round Katie and laid our hands on her and prayed. I tell you nothing is better than seeing childlike faith lived out in your kids prayers. We have taught our kids to pray big prayers, as they tend to actually believe that God will come through, and it's fun to hear them. Things like, "help mommy get better so she can come home today". I promise you, when kids pray, things happen. All in all it was a good experience and the girls left better off than when they came.

Now, it's not too surprising that Katie was really tired. The last really big day we had with her was last Sunday. If you look back on the blog you will see that there was a ton of interaction. So, after her big day, she proceeded to sleep from Sunday evening clear until Tuesday afternoon. Well, yesterday was even bigger than a week ago. She was out of bed three different times, walked at least 75 feet and had a number of prolonged interactions with family and friends. So, my guess is that she will be out until sometime Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

Dr. Carlstrom was a little concerned that she would not wake up for the girls so he ordered another CT scan, which I am happy to say is showing good improvement. The swelling is going down, and the hemorrhage is improving (I assume that means the blood is dissipating). So she really is just tired and not getting worse. Also, her blood pressure and fever persist, but are being controlled nicely by meds.

My hope/prayer is that by the end of the week she could be moved to the rehab wing of the hospital. Methodist has a wonderful rehab called, Younkers Rehab, and everyone who knows about this stuff says that is the place you want to be. It's also nice that it's part of the same hospital system so her care level should stay high.

One thing to pray for is my work. My boss has been great (he actually threatened to fire me if I showed up at work), and my co-workers are doing a great job covering my business, but now that my sugar-momma is laid up, I will probably actually have to get to work. My hope is to return part time the week of the 11th. The girls start school that week so it will probably work best to wait until then.

I also wanted to say a special thanks to my brother Rex and his wife Shawna and kids. They came up this last Friday from Topeka, KS, and basically took over the house for the weekend. Shawna took all of the night feedings for Sawyer so that Karen and I could rest, and Rex pretty much took the day feedings. Shawna also took the girls shopping and together they made sure we all ate well. So, we had a great weekend with the family as their kids get along great with our kids.

pictures from vacation 7/11 - 7/13

Katie and Aubree (L) and Tayler (R)

Here is the picture that Katie was laughing at this morning. The two girls on left are cousins.

Saturday 11am

So, here's the latest. Friday afternoon Katie woke up as she had a number of family members come and visit her, mostly from the Clarkson side. It was funny to see her uncles (she has 4) all trying to claim favorite uncle status. Her uncle Randy probably had the best interaction with her as she was really awake and looking around. At one point he asked me to step outside the room for a little discussion, and Katie looked at her mom and said, "secrets, secrets, they are telling secrets". Again, another example of her observing a situation, processing it, and then making a correct comment. I was able to get her a cup of ice and she ate all of it and drank the water with a straw. "That's good", was her response.

In case you didn't know, I've been having friends of hers come down and spend the night with her as I do not want the family to be here all day and then all night. The last thing we need is wiped out family members on top of a wiped out Katie. Most nights she sleeps peacefully, but I guess last night she was talking quite a bit. Michelle (the friend who stayed) said they had some really good interactions.

This interaction continued on into the morning. Sue showed up around 8am and Katie told her she was late. Then Dr. Carlstrom came in and he and Katie had a little discussion. He pulled up a chair and they talked for a few minutes. He had her follow with her eyes his finger as he moved it around. Another Dr. told us later that Dr. Carlstrom is very pleased with the progress and is also very optimistic. Again, not that our confidence is dependant on what the Dr's say, but it is fun to hear an expert comment on what God is doing, even if not intentionally. Katie even took time this morning to talk to Chad on the phone. After that a few of Katie's family from her mom's side (Kramer) were in and had a wonderful time with her. One of the cool things is that she recognized them all. Jane (an aunt) showed Katie a picture of Aubree with swim goggles on from a week before her surgery and Katie laughed until her stomach hurt (I'll see if I can post the picture as it is really cute).

Speaking of her stomach, the feeding tube is working nicely and they actually had to turn it down a little. Her blood pressure and fever are also doing much better which are both a result of the meds that are in pill form and fed through the tube. They were worried about infection, because of the fever, but they could not find anything (and believe me they looked, even brought in a specialist). So they concluded that the fever was a result of the trauma to the brain. The fact that these are both going away are also signs that the brain is taking back some of it's normal function.

I really don't know how to let all of you know just how much all the support means to us. I have received so much that there is no way for me to let all of you know how much it means. The fact that we don't have to worry about cooking a meal until sometime in late December is unbelievable. This is so great as it allows us all time to focus on the Tay, Aubs and Sawyer. Speaking of which, please pray for them as this morning I had to peal Aubs off of me sobbing as I left for the hospital.

We continue to stand confident in the Lord and in His love, knowing that He is faithful.