Day 140 -- Great News

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Monday 17 August -- Letter from Aubrey

Dear Bill,

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A wonderful thing happened last week. Daniel went in for his long awaited visit and hopefully, final check up with his trauma team. Since he had so many CT scans throughout his hospital stays, they decided against exposing him to more radiation. Upon close examination and review of all of his vitals, they all concurred that Daniel showed no signs of infection or abscess in his liver, and should be released on a "to be seen, as needed" basis.

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Having been by his side throughout 4 1/2 months of moment-to-moment critical procedures, setbacks, and "Let's wait and see" prognoses, they all stood and gave him a standing ovation.

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He now only has (2) more surgeries...the removal of the hardware in his arm, and the hernia repair; neither of which is critical.

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On Saturday, we celebrated with Geoff and Kelsey, their wedding. It was a beautiful day, ceremony, and reception. We are so happy for them.

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In less than 2 weeks, Daniel and Christine will be married, and all of our lives will change yet again. Change is said to be "good". We feel so very blessed to have our boys healthy, safe, and happy, and are going to collapse after all of this excitement has passed. As well, I think Alex and Stephen will welcome a little more attention directed their way. They have been so supportive throughout this whole ordeal.

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Please convey to everyone how grateful we are for their enduring support. Through your blog site, we have all been able to witness, experience, and participate in this miracle. It has been a God send for all of us.

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Love,

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Aub

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Editor's Note: When Aubrey called us (just after Daniel returned from his check up with the trauma team) and described their standing ovation for Daniel, Aubrey's voice choked with emotion. This has truly been an immense ordeal for Daniel and his entire family -- and an even more immense miracle that he has recovered so well and is able to move on with his life and marriage plans.

Geoffrey's wedding last Saturday evening was a delightful and festive gathering of two families on a beautiful summer evening -- with great food, awesome dancing and an overall wonderful event . Thank you to Kelsey's parents (if you happen to read this blog) for creating such a perfect and memorable occasion. We all feel fortunate to be a part of your extended family.

Day 120 -- Surgery Results

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Tuesday 28 July 2009

The surgery to remove the stent from Daniel's liver went forward as planned yesterday. The doctors determined the infection in Daniel's throat was not mono or strep, but rather pockets of puss from cold sores (hope you aren't eating breakfast while reading this) and did not present a significant risk of infection during the surgery.

The stent in Daniel's liver was removed successfully and he was feeling good after coming out of recovery. The next surgery will be to remove the hardware in Daniel's arm. This will happen in a couple of weeks.

Day 118 Update

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Sunday 26 July 2008

We promised updates whenever there is something to report. And today is the first significant development since the last blog entry.

For the past couple of weeks Daniel was improving. He has even been able to do normal stuff like going to the movies (Public Enemies was his favorite). Recently he began getting white blisters in his throat and now he has been put back on a new set of antibiotics to combat the infection.

The doctors had previously scheduled a laparoscopic surgery for tomorrow morning. They plan on going through Daniel's throat into his liver to remove the stint. However we aren't sure if the surgery will be postponed when Daniel arrives at the hospital tomorrow with an infected throat. Something about passing the surgical instrument through an infected throat area into his liver doesn't sound quite prudent to Daniel (or to us). We will keep you updated.

Day 100

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8 July 2009

Day 100.... A Milestone

Congratulations to you Daniel for toughing out 100 days of shattered bones, ruptured organs, intubation's, eleven surgeries, numerous hospital stays, days when you had to endure the pain with no pain meds, many setbacks and some disappointments. You've had enough tubes inserted in you to plumb a small house and parts of you are now titanium. But you have never given up and you have fought hard to remain strong, with faith and courage.

We won't dub you Saint Daniel just yet (there were those couple of times you got a little grumpy after all). But "Daniel the Lionhearted" (dictionary definition: extraordinarily courageous) and "Daniel the Determined" both fit well we believe. And of course there will always be the endearing "Trauma Bobsled".

So happy 100th Daniel! We love you and we know there are hundreds of people out there who follow your progress and who are praying for your complete and expeditious recovery.

This picture, taken on day 2, perfectly represents Daniel's positive attitude from the start

Day 99: T Bob Home from Hospital.... Yet Again

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Tuesday 7 July, 7:15 pm MST

Trauma Bobsled (if this reference doesn't make sense, read the earliest blog entries) was allowed to return home from the University Hospital today after one of many stays there since his accident. The hospital stays may not be over yet, but as Mendy said when we called her for this update, "we'll take whatever comes; we're just glad to still have him... most days" (nice to know she has been able to maintain her sense of humor through all of this).

Daniel is sick right now, but happy to be home again. The doctors have put him on two new IV antibiotics. The home health nurses arrived to help him learn how to use them as we were on the phone getting this update.

Basically things are in a wait-and -see mode. The doctors still aren't positive what is causing the temperature spikes that Daniel has been experiencing. But for now, they have chosen to fight the infection in his liver with antibiotics instead of surgery. If Daniel's temperature returns to 102 degrees, he will be re-admitted. The good news is, the University Hospital is only 5 minutes from his home, so it doesn't take Daniel long to return to his room with a view (and lots of tubes and machines that make beeping sounds). At this rate, they may decide to name a wing after him.

We are committed to keeping the blog going until Daniel and Christine's wedding (yes, we will post lots of pictures of that happy day), and beyond if necessary. In the interim, we will post a blog entry any day that there is new news of Daniel's condition. So if some days go by without a blog update, you can rest assured that no news is good news. But we will also report the good news when it happens.
And we even have a couple of surprise blog entries planned for the near future. So check back soon.

Day 98 -- Evening Update

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Monday 6 July, 5:30 pm MST

The doctors are not allowing Daniel to be given any food or liquid right now, which indicates to Aubrey that they may still be considering the possibility of surgery. For now Daniel remains in the University Hospital and we will update the blog if anything changes.

Daniel and Christine (taken two days ago)

to see more pictures scroll down

Day 98 Afternoon Update -- Surgery Abandoned

When Daniel went in for surgery this morning, the doctors did some exploratory work first. The surgeon injected a needle into the abscess in Daniel's liver and attempted to withdraw the toxic fluid, but it was too thick to come out. Based on that discovery, the doctors determined that inserting another tube to drain the abscess would not work, so the surgery was abandoned.

Looking over all the CT scans, the doctors reviewed the progress of the liver abscess from just after the accident until now. Over time the abscess has reduced from approximately the size of two fists to the size of a golf ball. Daniel was admitted to the hospital yesterday because of high fevers and it was assumed this was a result of infection from toxic fluid leaking out of the liver abscess. But after reviewing everything, the doctors now believe the high fevers were caused by the dead liver tissue being absorbed into the body.

The doctors believe the dead liver tissue will continue to liquefy and be absorbed into the body. The healing process for the liver is slow, but this latest prognosis from the doctors is good news. They are going to keep Daniel in the hospital for 24 hours to make sure the high fevers do not return. Aubrey sounded very relieved when he called to update us on Daniel's condition.