Sunday May 30, 2010 @ 1308

David is in recovery from his 8th surgery (at least that's 8 that we know of). He had another 5 units of blood and is doing good. They are aggressively working on his pain meds right now as well as putting him through another 3 hours of dialysis. The dialysis is simply taking the place of his kidneys until they are ready to rebound. The kidney function is considered "Acute" up to about 6 or 7 weeks and then gets downgraded to "Chronic". There is not one person we are speaking with that is extremely concerned about the kidneys at the current time. Yesterday Lynnette and I got in a little trouble because we gave him a fairly large bottle of water and he drank the whole thing as well as eating some Peach Yogurt and a few Cherry Twin Pops. He actually had a two or three hour period with some good kidney function but today is back to normal. (Very Little) Catherine told him that she would consider it a major gift to her if he would get his kidneys in gear and he just pulled a face at her.

Here are some comments from Catherine's time with him:

David's orthopedic surgeon came to see him around 1:15am and obtained his consent for surgery in the morning, which is scheduled first at 7:30am. They were going to call you but David told them he was awake and aware and could consent to the surgery. We discussed the procedure tomorrow, which the doctor summed up as a wash-out with the possibility of having to remove more bone on his lower extremities. He also said he would be washing out David's arm but not doing any of the flaps or attachment procedure we have discussed.
David told the doctor that he felt he was in good hands and could not sign his name on the consent form given the injuries to his right hand, but he did place an "X" on the signature line.
Aside from that, David was in a very relaxed mood this evening and joked with Kathy (the older, blonde nurse) for most of the evening. He also ate another cherry popsicle. He did not have any hallucinations so I spoke to Kathy to ask her what he had been taking that he was not on this evening to see if we could avoid the past medications that caused him so many graphic, violent hallucinations. (note from Gordon: David has been at war many times in his mind - he has made sure that Lynnette and Catherine stay behind him and don't leave his side - he has attempted to wipe blood from Catherine's face - luckily for Catherine, he even let her drive the helicopter) She seemed to think it could have been the pain medication that starts with a "D"; I can find out the name tomorrow. Either way, he slept for most of the evening so it was nice to see him get some good rest.

Catherine's thoughts this morning:
I just spoke to the surgeon so wanted to type this down while it is fresh in my mind: David's procedure went well today. They did not have to shorten the bone in either leg. The left leg looked good and they started closing it up but left a smaller area open as instructed by the senior surgeon, which from my understanding was not present but advised via oral or written instructions to Dr. Chin and the other resident who I spoke to last night in David's room when he came to obtain David's consent. The right leg did not look as good and muscle had to be removed. They did not have to remove bone but "quite a bit of muscle." His arm looked in good shape and they were able to close a good portion of the arm. The abdomen flap may not be necessary(fantastic), and will certainly not be necessary for the elbow, however there is a good chance the thumb area will be sown into David's groin area to regenerate the skin, as previously discussed with the surgeon. In other words, the hand will only need to be sown into his stomach/groin area, which will be less uncomfortable for David. Due to this potential procedure, the outer iron fixtures (fixator) will not be removed as they will provide support for the arm when the thumb is sown into his groin. Dr. Chin said "David is on the right track and things are looking as they should for his start to recovery." David's next surgery is schedule on Tuesday, June 1st.

Gordon again:
David's cultures from Friday's surgery returned positive results for a fungus and a bacteria from Afghanistan - this is all part of "the injury presenting itself". He is on a very very aggressive regiment of antibiotics which should take care of all the infection problems.

Lynnette and I had took the opportunity to go to church today and met some incredible people. We're going to get a private tour of the Arlington Cemetery. The gentleman, Randy Cone, that gave us a ride back to the hospital was incredibly sensitive about this situation and told us a quote that his mother made: "we do the extremely difficult every day, it is the impossible that takes a little more time!" I'm sure there are some that would consider this situation impossible but, absolutely, not David.

I love you all,

Gordon