Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 1007 on Stephen Lyon's Birthday

Happy Birthday Stephen - We Love You!

Lynnette was devastated by the visit to Walter Reed yesterday - the reality of it was a bit overwhelming but all is well today.

It is such a peaceful feeling right now. With David having so many friends and extended family from so many diversified backgrounds and from so many different religions praying, all to the same Heavenly Father, for him and his well being - I can not possibly express the joy of my tears this morning - David is leaving ICU today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe in Christ and I believe in his Father. I believe that Heavenly Father knew, before David was born into our lives and was still in the Spirit World, that this would happen and he has carefully orchestrated everything in such a way that I am in total awe. Not even considering the many train medical soldiers and medical professionals that helped to preserve David's life in the field, in Afghanistan, in Germany, and here in Bethesda, for medicine and technology to have advanced to the point that, from the date of an incredible blast that, without his innovative protective gear, would have taken his life immediately and now he'll be walking withing 6 months, for Ethen to have come into his life and given his life a new meaning and purpose, for Lynnette and I to be selling our business at a time when I could just walk away for a month or more, for Catherine, with all her strength and commitment, to have come into his life at a time when she just finished achieving her Master's Degree and was blessed with a period of time to evaluate what kind of job she wants, for all this to have come about at this one pivotal moment in time is absolutely no coincidence. I could fill a volume with the other "so called" coincidences that have influenced this moment, but, suffice it to say, our debts to our Heavenly Father will never be paid in full. That entire paragraph meant - THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS, those prayers are being answered.
Enough with the religious and philosophical undertones.
David had a very good night, they have unwrapped his entire right arm and all is healing very well. If he was proud of the scar he received when he had surgery from a compound fracture when he was about 16, boy oh boy is he going to be proud now. He can seriously embellish his shark attack stories from before. When I just left his room he was having a good dream and was just smiling away.
The skin flap has shown to be very successful. His kidneys now have his white count down to about 18,000 from the 30,000 count of a week ago. A normal kidney output is 10,000 or below. The fixator on his pelvis will be adjusted on Thursday and will make it more possible for him to sit up a little. The fixator on his hand will need to remain there for awhile but I have been given no time frame as of yet. His forearm, where they removed the skin flap, is doing well and will receive a skin graft, probably at the same time his right leg receives the necessary skin graft. His pain meds will be able to be reduced a bit so he can have much more clarity. It is really nice that, now when he looks at us, it does not feel like he is looking with a blank stare. His legs are healing well but are extremely painful when they have to change the dressings and move things around.
He is looking much more studly, like me, now. Ok, maybe the word should not be studly, maybe the word should be bald. He has one or two spots on the back of his head where the hair is really thinning, because of the wear from the pillow, and is getting tender.
Last night Nate Gatten, from the LDS Ward out here, took me to his favorite spots in the area. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and last, but absolutely not least, the Marine Corps Memorial of the raising of the flag at Iwo Gima. What incredible tributes to incredible people at incredible times. For a guy with 4 great sons in the Military - I couldn't be more proud. Yes, daughters, I am extremely proud of you too - I hope you know that.

I'll write more later. I hope my LDS religious sentiments have not offended anyone.

All My Love,

Gordon