Update on Dad

Some of you haven't known about what's been going on with Dad so I thought this might be the easiest way to tell everyone.  He's been having his own health problems while we were dealing with Chad's. 

It all started on February 21st with surgery on his lower back.  While recovering in the hospital he developed a staph infection.  They were having a hard time figuring out where the infection was coming from and finally figured out it was his upper spine.  They did another surgery on March 18th to place pins and a rod in his spine (to fix more back problems they discovered after the first surgery) and to remove some of the infection.  During surgery his blood pressure dropped.  They decided to send him to the ICU for a few days to recover.  He's now on a ventilator and requiring medication to make his kidneys function and keep his blood pressure up.  They've kept him sedated so he can rest and not fight the ventilator.  He has been so out of it he has no idea what's going on.  Robyn and I came down to Little Rock today to see him and spend the night.  This evening they've turned off the sedation so he will start waking up and hopefully they can remove the endotracheal tube by the morning.  They have mentioned possibly having to do another surgery later this week to remove more infection.  We are keeping our fingers crossed it won't come to that.  He's been through so much already.

He has a very long recovery ahead of him.  Not only does he have to over come the infection, he's had major back surgery he will have to over come.  He will need continued prayers for a long time!  He's a tough man and we know he will come through this!

Update on Chad - He's doing great now!  He's slowly getting stronger each day and the headaches have slowly started going away.  He's supposed to go back to work later this week, so we are keeping our fingers crossed he's strong enough!

Thanks to everyone for the continued support for our family during this time!  We couldn't make it through all of this without all of you!  I think after all of this is over our family deserves a HUGE vacation! 

I wish I had a cute picture of Eli to brighten up this blog post but I'm away from home and I don't have my camera.  Maybe tomorrow!

Good night!