Overnight

Good Morning Everyone. I stayed with Phil last night so I am up bright and early so I thought I would give you an update so you can know how to be praying today.


He is still continuing to wake up. They increased his sedation again last night in hopes that he would rest and we could start again this morning with weaning him off the ventilator. Around 5AM they decided to essentially get him off all sedation and just treat his pain and see how he does. He continues to move around a lot in bed. He looks pretty uncomfortable as far as tossing and turning and trying to get in the right position. I really think he hates this air bed. It is slick and he is so tall and keeps sliding down. His nurse was so gentle and sweet and kept repositioning him and giving him pain medication. Off and on he follows commands. One time last night I asked him to squeeze his right hand and he did and he continues to attempt opening his eyes. I feel like I am waiting for a kid to walk. I get so excited when he follows commands.

They were able to go down to an FiO2 of 40% on the ventilator and he was only receiving 4 respirations a minute from the ventilator. His blood gas this morning showed a decrease in the amount of dissolved oxygen, back down in the 60's, but when they called Dr. Ruiz he just wanted to keep up what we were doing for now. Please pray that Phil's body would dissolve oxygen into his blood and that his lungs would be strong and could breathe on their own and he would be able to get off and stay off the ventilator today. Continue to pray against infection. They have him on many antibiotics, antifungals, and antiviral medications.

As you know, they took him off dialysis last night. He continued to make urine on his own, but his creatinine (marker of kidney function) increased this morning to 3.2, up from 2.8. At this point, Dr. Ruiz just wanted to watch it and see how he does and doesn't want to restart dialysis. Continue to pray that God would heal his kidneys.

Another praise is that he is now being fed and he is able to tolerate his goal nutrition rate of feeding that the dietician set for him.

So of course, we all want to know about the liver function. Speaking with the nurse, I know that she said when she called Dr. Ruiz after the morning blood work he was happy about some tests but I don't know which ones. She did say his bilirubin went down from 3.1 to 3.0, slight decrease, but we will take it. His albumin is increasing which is good (the liver produces this). His INR though was at 2.0 this morning which is slightly increasing so they are going to give him some more plasma (clotting factors). They are going to do an ultrasound with doppler this morning on his liver to access the blood flow. Continue to pray for healing for this current liver especially the clotting function.

I have been very burdened to pray for Phil as he is waking up today. I can imagine how scary it would be to awake with a tube in your throat and machines all around you and to find our your liver is teetering. Please pray that God would give him His peace and strength and would calm all of his fears. Pray for the strength of his soul to be increased.

Psalm 138:2-3, "I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased."

Psalm 139:13-16, "For you formed my inner parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

There is a new family in the waiting room who has a loved one that was up on the regular floor and then crashed last night and is now in ICU. They are very distraught. I have been able to talk a little with them. Please pray that God would provide opportunities for conversation with them. Ruth's sister, for those of you who met her, is now up on a regular floor. We are happy for her and know which room she went to.

I want to share with ya'll one more thing. When Phil was in Baylor Hospital in Dallas earlier in January, I was sitting with him one morning for breakfast. On his tray, there was a card from the chaplain's office with a prayer and scripture. It meant so much to us that morning and we had a great time of prayer. We even threw away the card accidentally and one of Phil's chaplain friends, Becca, was able to get us a knew one. When I ran by the house the other night I saw it and brought it up here. It says...

Psalm 118:24 "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Prayer: God of all faithfulness, break the shackles of my past and dispel any dread of the future; then I will be empowered to live well this day. Amen.

We loved the part about dispeling dread about the future and this is my continued pray for Phil that he would not dread the future or be anxious. Also, that he would be empowerd to live well each day- to focus on today and not worry about tomorrow.

I will go in again at 9AM. Beth and Kristin are still resting which I am so happy about. Dr. Ruiz said he would be by between 10 and 1 today. Justin just left to go and work on the robot. It has to be shipped off by Tuesday.

I will update when we find out more info.