Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
 Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Saturday 4/30

*6:50
Mom just came back from seeing Dad. One of his neurosurgeons came in and asked him to stick his tongue out and he obliged him. The Surgeon told Mom he was stable this morning. All good news!!!!

*3:15 pm
Dad has been resting quite a bit today. He had a few visitors at 2 today. He tires out soo easily. He did raise his eyebrows when Uncle Marty (his brother) was talking to him.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Friday 4/29

*9:30 pm
We came in to tell Dad goodnight. We got several smiles out of him and a wink! What a wonderful way for us to end the day!!!! We are praying that he is able to get some rest tonight. They turned on the tv earlier and he was listening to the NFL draft!

*4:00 pm
The Dr's just left from seeing dad. He held up 2 fingers, squeezed their hand and wiggled his toes. They are pleased with this! Dad is frustrated with the tube and ready to get it out! They gave him some pain meds to help him relax. The tube just agitates him. We hate it and are soo ready for him to get it out. He didn't sleep very well last night, so we know he is exhausted. We just keep telling him to get some rest so he can get better.
Caroline, Mom and I have been here with him today and he has had several visitors.

*10:00 am
Mom and I just went back to see Dad. He raises 2 fingers for the Dr's, squeezed both of our hands and he's moving his arms and legs. He is still on the vent and probably will be until Monday. We haven't seen the Dr's today, but nurses tell us Dr's are pleased. Keep the prayers coming.... they are powerful!!!!!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

*4:25 pm
The surgeon just came in a bit ago. She wants to leave the vent in through the weekend. She reminded us tomorrow may be a bad day, but that's expected. He smilled at me and raised his eyebrows and shook his head yes to mom while she was talking to him!

Dad is having a better day. He held up 2 fingers and squeezed moms hand lightly. Mom, Caroline and I are sitting in here with him now. He opened his eyes wider when he heard moms voice! =) I told him I was a little jealous!!
We don't have results from the MRI yet, but the CT scan didn't show anything abnormal.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wednesday 4/27

*10:15 pm
Caroline and I are staying at the hospital again tonight. We just left from seeing dad. He opened his eyes pretty wide and puckered his lips at us! We didn't get any other response, but that's ok! He could hear us and knew we were there. I asked him if he would squeeze my hand, then asked to wiggle his toes and didn't get anything. I asked him if he didn't want to move his toes or squeeze my hand and after awhile he shook his head "No". =)
He had another MRI tonight and we should have the results in the am. We are very anxious to hear!!!
Dad looked good today. I am hoping we have more improvement tomorrow!!!

*10:37 am
Caroline and I came to Heber this morning to take care of some stuff around the house and bring stuff back for Mom. On the way here, Mom called me and asked me to put the phone on speakerphone. She spoke to his surgeon, Dr Peterson, and told her how worried we were and that she had a melt down yesterday. The Dr quickly told her if he was getting worse, she would be here. She told us that with everything he has been through, this is very common. She compared it to a sprained ankle and said we have to give the brain time to heal. She was VERY encouraging and said we should hopefully see progress by the weekend. This was wonderful news following our rough day yesterday. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers. We are receiving lots of visitors, calls, texts, emails, facebook msgs and blog comments. We read each and everyone of them. Last night before we went to sleep, I read Mom all the Facebook and Blog comments. We are so truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family and we can't thank you all enough! We are trying our best to reply to every call, text, email and comment. Let's keep praying for a Wonderful Wednesday.

Love you all!
Anna Kathryn

MRI did not show anything! No new bleeding or a stroke, which is good. The DR said dad is a very seriously ill man and they are not sure why he is not responding. They are going to do another MRI today and look a little lower down the spinal cord. He is still wiggling his toes on command, but not giving a thumbs up, squeezing our hands and holding up fingers like he had been doing. I just keep telling mom dad is a strong guy and if anyone can get thru this, he can.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

4/26 Update

*10:10 pm
We just spoke to the nurse. EEG did not show anything abnormal! Praise the lord!!!! We will have MRI results in the AM.

*9:25 pm
Dad went back for an MRI around 6:30 tonight. We have yet to hear the results. We haven't heard anything about the EEG yet either.
We have had a rough day. Caroline and I are staying at the hospital again tonight to be with mom. Hopefully we will have some news in the am

*2:45 pm
Brett and I just went back for the 2pm visitation. Luckily we were in the room when the DR stopped by. Dad still isn't responsive. He will wiggle his toes on command, but that is about it. We are still waiting for the results of the EEG. It is like a roller coaster. We have good days and bad days and this is a bad day. We are hoping and praying for more good days!

*11:00 AM
We really need your prayers this morning. Dad isn't very responsive. They just did an EEG and we are anxious to hear the results.
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers.... keep them coming!!!!!!!!!

I am going to print off all these posts so Dad can read them when he is able. Please leave comments too, so I can print them off for him to read as well!

Monday, April 25, 2011

4/25 Update

We just spoke to the Dr's about an hour ago. We found out Dad does have an Aneurysm. They are doing a procedure in the next hour or so that is very similar to a heart cath. They will try to "fix" the aneurysm with coil type material.
Dad's blood sugar is 117 and is blood pressure was good. (They didn't tell me what it was, just that they were happy with where it was)
He is still responding to commands. He gave the DR a thumbs up several times when she requested and squeezed Caroline's hand when she asked him if he could see her.
They will leave him on the vent for the day and hopefully try to remove it tomorrow.
Thanks again for all of your prayers. Keep them coming and say a prayer for all of the Dr's and staff that will be with dad during this procedure. They said it will last anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. I will keep everyone updated.

*4:25 pm
As of 4:25 pm, Dad has not been taken down for his procedure yet. We are hoping they will take him soon. They said it shouldn't actually take 2-5 hours, they just allow that long for it. Will keep everyone updated!

*4:40 pm
They just took him back

*6:30 pm
We spoke to a nurse around 6:30. The procedure is still not complete, but we know it is going well.

*8:36
Still waiting...........

*12:12 am (4/26)
We finally were notified that Dad was back in his room around 9:45 pm. We were able to see him and Mom spoke to one of the Dr's on the phone. They said the procedure went smoothly. Our focus now is working on getting him off the vent! He hates it more than anything and it breaks my heart to see him this way. I pray that he doesn't remember any of this. I keep telling Mom that hopefully we will be the only ones that remember him being this way. He hates the vent so very much and we just want him to be able to communicate with us. Caroline and I are staying in the waiting room of the hospital tonight and Mom just called to tell us that his breathing is good and he is resting. He hasn't had much rest these past few days, so we are glad to hear this.
Thanks again everyone for all your thoughts and prayers.




Pop and his biggest fan!!!!!!!!!!


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Update on Dad

**I am hoping to be able to start posting updates on our blog. I figure this is the best way to keep everyone informed on his status.**

Please say a prayer for our family! I will do another post shortly (hopefully) explaining what all has gone on these past few days with Dad. As of right now, they had to put Dad back on the vent. He became unresponsive. After they had him on the vent, they did a CT Scan and found more bleeding in the head. Surgery is not planned as of right now. They are continuing to drain the blood from the tube in his head. They injected a "clot buster" and we are hoping this breaks up the clots and allows the blood to drain from his tube. He is alert and following the commands he is given. It is so heartbreaking to see my daddy laying there with all of those tubes coming from him. His eyes just look around the room and it breaks my heart. We talk to him continuously and let him know we are here and we love him soo much! I told him the whole town of Heber is praying for him!! He is such a tough guy and If anyone can make it through this, he is going to be the one to do so!! I want to thank each and every one of you that have said a prayer for my Dad. It means so much to us to know that so many people love and care about my dad.

Here are some pictures I had on this laptop of my dad and Gracie. She sure does love her Pop! This morning after the vent had been removed, I told Dad Gracie loves her Pop so much! He smiled soo big! He loves that little girl more than anything... and I promise you... the feeling is mutual!!!!






Update from Day 1

I never would have thought my life could have change this drastically in less than 2 hours. On April 22, 2011 around 4:30 pm my world fell apart. Dad had been outside working in the yard, when he came inside, white as a sheep, complaining of pain in his head. He laid on the couch and mom gave him some aspirin and took his blood pressure. When it reached 200, she sat it down and went to get her stuff to take Dad to the ER. Not 2 minutes later, Dad looked up at me and said, "Anna Kathryn, something is not right... call an ambulance." 1 hour later, we find out he has cerebral bleeding and it is very serious. They incubate him and Med-Flight him to Little Rock and inform us he will go to surgery ASAP. Our dear family friends, the Freemans, drove Mom and Caroline and I drove myself, Gracie and Brett. We arrived around 10 pm and they ended up not starting Surgery until 2 AM. What a loooong night/morning that was. Before he went into surgery, the Dr's told us this was very serious and he may not make it. This was definitely not what we wanted to hear. An hour into the surgery, we got a call that everything was going smoothly, then 30 minutes later the DR came out and said all went well. Praise the lord!!!!


I can't take credit for the updates I'm posting below! My parents sweet friends, Mike and Evelyn Irwin emailed these updates out. I have started on an update from day one, but have fallen asleep each time I sit down to write it! Hopefully this will catch everyone up.

Jack had a bad headache Thursday night and Friday and he knew something wasn't right. He went to our hospital Friday afternoon about 5 and was Med-Flighted to UAMS shortly thereafter.

8:00 Saturday morning:
They did surgery on Jack at 2:00 last night and found a blood clot at the base of the brain, probably caused by High Blood Pressure. They sent it off to be sure.

He is sedated and intubated . They will gradually remove the sedation today to see if there is any movement. They don't know the amount of damage. Even if he moves to fight the intubation, that is a good sign--any movement would be wonderful. They are going to do another CAT scan today to see if there is any bleeding. He still has a tube in his brain.

10:00 Saturday morning:
Jack is alert, has moved fingers and toes, eyes open and gave a thumbs up sign.
BP is still high, but they are working on that

7:00 Saturday evening:
They did another CAT scan on Jack at 3:00. They told Dicey if anything was wrong, they would let her know soon. She has not heard from the scan is taking that as good news. Jack is still fighting the intubation, which is good. He is responding well. In about 16 hours they will take the tubes out and be able to evaluate him better at that time.

All three of their children were home when Jack got sick and all went to Little Rock. Their grandchild has been in Benton with Dicey's family. They have had family with them and Jack's brother has gotten there.
Jack is at UAMS.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

VOTE

Ok everyone.... I need your help!!! =) Gracie is in a contest on the "Oh Sew Fancy Clothing Co." Facebook page. If you are a facebook user, could you please please PULEASE, go and like Oh Sew Fancy Clothing Co., then like Gracie's picture?!? Voting ends tonight at 7. We would really really really love to win a custom outfit!! If you haven't checked this page out, you will thank me afterwards. They have the cutest, funkiest stuff!!! =) Thanks soo much for all of your help!! We love you all!!! =)