September 8 - Day 86

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. -Psalm 62:5,6

Thank you all for bearing with me as I’ve gotten behind on our daily updates. The days are busy and I have to leave Dean’s room in order to access the internet. (This is a struggle because I always want to be by his side.) As time permits, my goal is to post the updates over the past few days soon. Thank you for being patient, praying and remembering us.

Please pray for wisdom and good stewardship of our time, money, and resources as we discuss Dean’s continued care. There are a lot of details both medically and physically that are involved in caring for Dean. The therapist was showing me a catalog of medical supplies such as wheelchairs, beds, sliding boards, showering chairs, suctioning devices, etc. I was showed how to transport Dean from his chair to a bed and various therapy techniques for his range of motion. I literally lay his head on my shoulder, lean his body towards me and brace his right knee with my legs to stabilize him since his left leg has limited weight bearing. Then I wrap my arms around his waist and grab his pants as I slide him across a board and lift him into his wheelchair. It’s best to have two people to assist in doing this process but it will be easier once Dean becomes more conscious of himself.

Dean clicked a pen and kept turning his head to the right towards his therapist with a disdained look on his face when she told him to do something. There are moments when Dean is asked to do a simple task such as a clicking a pen or holding a ball which takes him several minutes to do and at times he does nothing. This reflects just how hard he hit his head on that rock.

Dean also did well on the tilt table and maintained a stable blood pressure at a 40 degree angle. The table is raised at small increments as tolerated and when his blood pressure drops, he is lowered to a flat laying position. Typically, raising him will cause his blood pressure to drop which may eventually cause him to faint if it were to go too low. So this is a slow process as his body remembers the pull of gravity after so many weeks in bed. His heart rate increases, working hard to circulate the blood through his body even though he is strapped to a table that is tilting him.

We thank the Lord for Dean’s life, the miracle of each breath, and every moment together!

 

 



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