Steady Progess

When the pilot came on the intercom this morning to welcome us on the flight to Omaha all was fine. He went through the normal our flight time will be blah blah blah at an altitude of blah blah then he said something that caught my attention. He said the current temperature in Omaha is four.....Yes, go ahead four what? Four...ty? Four...teen? Nope, He stopped at four. My mind started racing, how can I get off this plane. Open the doors and let me out man! I am going to die as soon as I step off this plane. I am the kind of guy that is supposed to be wearing shorts and flip flops, not whatever the heck one would wear when it is four outside. My coat is already packed away in the attic dude.....4, are you kidding me. As we got closer to landing the pilot came back on and said "I have good news folks, it seems to have warmed up a bit and the current temperature is now 6" Well the good news is that when I stepped outside I did not curl up and die, but I certainly have never experienced this kind of cold before. I ran to the rental car hoping to warm up when I hopped in. Then I was surprised to see my breath even after I closed the door. I thought once you got in the car your breath is supposed to be invisible, not when it is 6 I guess. I am thankful I live in Texas and I will be getting my passport when we get home so I can head to Mexico where I can warm back up.

I arrived at the hospital this morning just in time for rounds. The Dr. came in with nothing but good news, her kidneys are "happy", she has made progress on the ventilator settings, she is going up on her feeds and down on the TPN (IV feeds that led to the need for her liver transplant). The Dr. said she made really great progress through the night then said "I don't know what the h*** we did, but she is making progress" In the absence of anything showing up on any of the cultures his best guess is that she aspirated some throw up and the stomach acid chemically burned her lungs. When she comes off the vent they are going to stop one of the anti-rejection drugs as one of the major side effects in vomiting. The theory is that if she is not vomiting so much then we won't repeat these events. My prayer is that is one indeed this particular drug that was causing her to vomit so much.

We may not ever know what caused this, but I am certain that it was God who has turned her around. I also know that it is the prayers of thousands of you who lift up the pickle and carry her to Him that makes the difference. It really made my heart happy to come into this room this morning and see such progress.

Today is going to be a great day for the littlest pickle I can feel it!

DAVE