Sunday's update

Today has been a bit of a rough day for Steve. He was doing okay this morning, but then had a really tough time with nausea. This would cause a problem for anyone, but add the mouth and jaw surgery along with the trachea and it was pretty bad. After that a migraine started to come on strong. In the meantime, his leg is very painful. I've never had any broken bones myself, but the nurses tell me bone pain is the worst kind of pain. They are trying so hard to keep his pain level down, but he has so many different things causing him pain!

Another issue is the ventilator. They have tried twice to take him off of it, but the pain medicine is making his breathing so shallow, they are afraid to unhook it. If he stays on the ventilator for too long, then the risk of pneumonia soars higher and higher. Evidently, three days is about the most they like to have anyone on the machine. So we are kind of in a "catch 22". 

Steve is getting bed sores because he has not been able to move much due to his leg and all the machines he is still hooked up to. They will test him again in the morning to see if he can come off of the ventilator machine and hopefully he can move around a little bit more. In order to leave the ICU, Steve has to be breathing on his own. In order to breathe on his own, Steve has to tolerate the pain more than he wants to. (His nurse says his lungs are very strong and clear!)

Please pray that Steve will be able to handle the pain a little more while they work to get him off the ventilator machine. Also that his migraine will subside, his nausea will go away, and his breathing will regulate. Then, as the doctors and nurses say, we can begin getting his system on its way to a somewhat normal state.  God bless you!