Brad,

Thanks for the great update.  Lots needs prayer.  Yet so much progress. 
Don't suppose we'll get some of those answers we look for until heaven.  I 
say that, not as a way out, but just to say, this isn't all there is.  And 
we can know for sure one thing.  We don't know it all, but God in fact does. 
Do keep us updated.

Vicki

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B Dunse" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 2:53 PM
Subject: Andy Update


> Hello Folks,
>
> I thought to give an update on my nephew Andy who was in the bad accident 
> last April. He and his fiance have had to move out of their apartment due 
> to finances. Fortunately they are able to stay at her grandparents cabin 
> on a nearby lake for as long as they need. Heather, his fiance has had 
> some health issues for some time and now diagnosed with having an ulcer. 
> Which isn't good, but better than Kron's Disease as they had thought. So 
> with dietary care and stress reduction she ought be able to whip that one. 
> Although stress reduction is likely hard considering she is the  only 
> driver in their household now  as well the only one who can sign papers, 
> make arrangements and etc.  She serves as Andy's legal guardian at this 
> point. He has to write a letter to the judge to prove that he is willing 
> and able to marry heather. Talking to him today, he is thinking after his 
> surgeries. Granted they are living in a less than desirable situation as 
> live-ins yet, but she is sold out committed to him and they are for all 
> intents and purposes one. I'm feeling I ought snug up to the line of 
> showing them God's love and Christ's salvation and etc. It isn't that they 
> don't know where I stand, and seen how a miracle has taken place with 
> Andy's recovery, but nonetheless we don't always get it until it is 
> pointed out a couple hundred times. Anyway. Their son will be going in for 
> an assessment on his corrective surgery on the day after thanksgiving. He 
> had a procedure done a year ago to date almost, to expand his skull due to 
> the lack of a soft spot enough to make room for the brain to grow. He's a 
> little stinker and runs around as any other toddler. When they did the 
> surgery last year, they nicked a nerve that controls lazy eye so they are 
> fixing that now. So then, with Andy he is going in  October 31 and having 
> a procedure done to try to expand the skin on the scalp. They will put in 
> disk like expanders on the side of his head which are expanded I believe 
> with a solution weekly to expand the skin. The doctor is concerned however 
> with his skin tightness now and the scarring that he has, and the ability 
> to heal properly from this procedure. They are afraid it will not close 
> proper, open him up to infection, plus the body's desire to reject foreign 
> objects, and so they are concerned for the success of the procedure and 
> his being able to withstand it. they said without this procedure, doing 
> the reconstructive surgeries needed yet on his skull would give him a 40% 
> chance of survival.  I don't know the percentage of survival with the 
> procedure done. They are going to try to get the scalp stretched enough to 
> do the surgeries around or after Christmas. I am not sure what is going on 
> with the family. His younger brother who was pretty close with him and 
> really  upset at the time of the accident isn't returning his calls and 
> doesn't seem to care about what is going on, his sister is mad at his 
> finance for telling truth about his mother's claims  of helping him, and 
> so there is some family dynamics which aren't good. So I would ask if you 
> would to pray for the family unit to be repaired. To my knowledge none 
> know the Lord,  so to say,  but yet family ought be there for each other. 
> Also pray for his surgical procedure to be a success and no infection or 
> subsequent problems resulting from it, as well a peace about it all  going 
> into it. I tried to stress not focusing on the procedure but the results 
> afterward and past that point, and come to think of it this time I hadn't 
> mentioned praying, but I have before and am going to try to get him 
> pointed toward God. It  could be tough to explain if god is so good then 
> why did this all happen in the first place and so forth. Yet the recovery 
> is nothing short of miraculous and I can't imagine God has gotten him 
> through to this point for no reason. He seems in good spirits over all. I 
> sent him some money to help out their financial situation and he said it 
> came just when they needed it which I was glad to hear. I don't know if I 
> mentioned it but  a friend of his mother had brainstormed a benefit 
> dinner/auction for him, and to be quite frank, it is obvious it was a ruse 
> to gain money by someone which I'll not publicly say here. But I believe 
> he was taken advantage of while his hospital bed was yet warm from his 
> release, as they only benefited $600 out of  the entire benefit when there 
> was at least three times that sold in dinner tickets alone. Anyway, I 
> can't go down that road or I'll be on the phone regretting my words to 
> someone. Finances, peace, health protection, and joy through this all is 
> appreciated for Andy and Heather and their little one. Thanks so much.
>
> Brad