Brad,

Be encouraged, as I am, by this update.  My friend's son had many facial 
injuries making feeding and tubes very difficult, though he's an amazing guy 
now and (despite much restructuring of bones and face) knows that we all 
prayed for him and he has a much higher awareness of God now than he did 
have.  I'll be going on praying for Andy and look forward to further 
updates.

Hang in there and enjoy everything that God has so clearly done for him.


--
Carol
[log in to unmask]




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BD" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 4:53 AM
Subject: Andy update Sunday


>I called Andy's mom. Here is the latest update. They took him for a walk 
>down the long hallway, and he did very good. Leaned a little to one side 
>but overall very good. They have him sitting up a lot. His head wrap is 
>off. They have him strapped in the chair when he is up so he doesn't hurt 
>himself somehow. He is very loopy yet from the meds and it is uncertain yet 
>if he recognizes people or not. His fiance brought in  his one year old son 
>but he didn't  respond much. Andy does talk although  not always making 
>sense. He knows his mom but that might be because she has referred herself 
>to him as mom so often. He knows his name and birth date but can't remember 
>why he is in the hospital. He gets agitated some and will say stuff like... 
>"Mom I need to sit down"  when he is sitting down but then puts his pillow 
>on the bed. They think his reference to sitting down is him meaning he 
>wants to put his feet on the bed while sitting in the chair. They said he 
>has a lot of bruising of the brain in the frontal area, which controls 
>behavior. Bruising is not repairable in the brain and we can only hope  it 
>isn't too severe. I guess the nurses well know he remembers how to toss out 
>expletives, but they say this is common in head injuries. His mom said he 
>will sit and he is a bit anxious  trying to lean forward and reposition 
>himself and etc. The nurses said when he goes for a walk he is very content 
>afterwards so the exercise and just getting out of bed or the chair 
>probably helps. We just continue to pray his brain isn't damaged to a point 
>of not being able to function but in all our wishing, we have to remember 
>it hasn't even been two weeks since his accident and he is doing great in 
>recovery. They are getting him ready to go to another floor, the floor  to 
>begin rehabilitation. Andy has a pretty big hole in one elbow they need to 
>do surgery on, as well a couple cracked collar bones they need to fix up. 
>Then they figured about 3 to 4 surgeries on his head which they'll do last. 
>I am going to head over there Wednesday night and get in late and hopefully 
>Thursday go see him if not on the weekend. I plan to go in and not tell him 
>who I am to see if he recognizes me. Then I'm going to grab his hand and 
>pray with, or for, him, perhaps silently as to not cause him distress if he 
>can't understand what  I'm saying, we'll see. I appreciate your continued 
>prayer for him for a full recovery. They indicated there will be a time 
>when he will have need  for assisted living facility as he'll be too 
>healthy for the hospital but not well enough to care for himself without 
>supervision. Oh and they took the feeding tube off and he is eating well 
>with a good appetite, I believe they are feeding him and he is not yet 
>feeding himself. So that is the update for now. I was thinking of bringing 
>him a new fishing  rod and reel because Andy loves fishing, but  I'm not 
>sure that would be good yet. If I knew he was understanding everything, I 
>thought it would be a neat thing for him to look on leaning in the corner 
>of his room as incentive to bust out one day, but he's got a way to go yet.
>
> Brad
>
>
> __________ NOD32 1.1523 (20060505) Information __________
>
> This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
> http://www.eset.com
>
>