May 24, 2010 1600

David's surgeons just spoke with us to give us and update. He was in surgery for a little over 3 hours today and will be back in surgery in another 48 hours. If those having surgery prior to him have been in Afghanistan or other contries with biological concerns, the entire operating room including all the walls are washed and sanitized prior to the next surgery.
This time there was a plastic surgery team that assessed the damages to his right arm and will, over the next several days, assess the damages and figure out if they can use muscle folds from other muscles in the arm or if they will have to bring muscles from his back or other parts of his body.
Every 48 hours they carefully clean the muscles remaining in his legs and if there is any dead tissue or muscle they have to remove a little more = as was the case today. They had to remove a little more muscle from the back of his right leg. The surgeon said that they did not have to remove any more bone but they will evaluate that as the injury is finally close and may need to take another, hopefully tiny, bit more bone.
His kidneys seem to be performing much better but he may still need some dialysis in the future.
The apparatus on the exterior of his pelvis is still in place and they were unable to take care of the screws in the pelvis at this time. With the blast that David took, all of the tendens that hold the bones of the pelvis together were disrupted so the device is in place to hold the pelvic position firm. The scary part to us is when David is trying to lift himself and "get moving" he puts his arms against that bar, holding his pelvis, and just pushes and pushes and actually rotates his entire hips.
We try to control his arms and hands as best we can and direct his hands to an area other than those bars. Man is he strong.
I am simply amazed at the pain he is willing to take in order to achieve his goal. He rolls to his right side and tries to pull himself off the side of the bed so he can "get back to his truck".
We are really looking forward to the time when he will have the pain blocks instead of the pain medication that makes him loopy.

We love you soooooo much! Your support is incredible. I wish you had the privilege of holding him like we are. It is so comforting to put our arms carefully around him and put our head next to his.

See You Soon
Gordon and Lynnette