Out of the Hospital

Elias was transferred from St. Luke's to Cherokee Regional Medical Center on 12/14/06. He stayed for rehab in the Cherokee hospital until 12/21/06. He had some initial bladder issues that have been resolved. He was walking 900 feet when he was discharged from the hospital. Elias traveled to Chicago (to sight see) this past week and now we are back in Cherokee. Elias is doing exercises daily and we are still praying for some recovery of the nerve function to his lower extremities. We won't know for sure for a few months as to what his final level of functioning will be.

Sunday Night!

Elias is doing great. He was able to get up and sit in a chair today. He also ate his first meal today. His wound drainage is slowing down and this blood work is getting back to normal. Pain control is still the main issue. It is being controlled good with medication and they are starting to wean him off the meds. Elias is still in the ICU and will probably remain there until he is transfered to Cherokee. Now the process of rehabilitation begins. It will be a long road, but we are optomistic about the outcomes. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!!!

jeremy

Saturday Morning!

Elias is doing OK this morning. As expected there has been quite a bit of blood loss after the surgery. Elias has been given some units of blood to help replace what was lost. He is also dealing with some significant pain at this point which the ICU staff is controlling well, but it makes him quite sleepy. Elias will be unable to drink or eat until his stomach starts to "wake up". This should happen today. Please continue in prayer for him. They are allowing visitors for short periods of time.

Surgery is Complete!!!

Elias is done with surgery in 1/2 the predicted time. he is in the ICU waking up. Thank you for all your prayers!

jeremy

Cleared for Surgery

Yesterday Elias was given a clean bill of health and cleared for surgery on Friday. We need to arrive at St. Luke's in Sioux City at 6am and the surgery will likely be completed by 8pm. Elias will have a short term stay in the hospital there before we can move him back to Cherokee.

Your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated on Friday.

SURGERY DATE:

Sorry for not updating this sooner. I had been having some problems accessing this blog, but I got it figured out. Anyway, we have a date of December 8th for the surgery!

Other than that, we attended the STEMM fund raiser on Thursday night and it was wonderful. Dr. Meyer and the staff do a wonderful job raising money for the kids of Tanzania. If you don't know STEMM, you should check them out. The website is www.stemm.org

Elias was thrilled with his first snow fall yesterday. He took lots of pictures! That's all for now.

Jeremy

Pushed Back:

I was informed by the surgery group that the surgery is going to be pushed back by at least 1 week. It looks like there is going to be 3 surgeons involved now so it is taking some time to coordinate all of their schedules.

Sill waiting on the Visa extension.