Prayers needed for a fellow BT'er. (Page 4)

Stephanie sent an update in this morning with some good news:

Good Morning.

I would like to start this morning by saying that I am very grateful for the love you have shown John since this ordeal began.  He talks about his "BT friends" all of the time and I was always a little surprised by how close he seemed to a lot of people that he doesn't really "know".  I have seen first hand why he feels that way.  Your support is so awesome that I can hardly express it to you in words.  I spent much of last night reading things that had been written by some of you.  I originally stayed in the items about John, but I started to look around at some other things.  I have to say, in the nicest way possible, that I think some of you are absolutely crazy. 

We had some very rough times last night.  There were four times that they had emergency calls to the room due to lowered heart rate or some of the ekg readings.  I have a hard time understanding what the medical professionals are saying sometimes, but they generally send a social worker in to tell me what it all means when everything calms down.  I wanted to wait until I saw the doctors this morning before I sent another update.  Around 2 AM this morning, John's heart rate dropped to 16 beats per minute and they had to take some extreme measures.  They used paddles to get it beating again, and had things back in order rather quickly.  This type of event happened three more times before 4 AM.  At around 4:45, John's heart completely stopped.  They called a code blue and there were several people in this very small room working frantically as one of the nurses ushered me out.  At 5:10 they came and got me to tell me that I could return.  They tell us that his heart stopped for around 4 minutes before they got it restarted.  They have put some sort of regulator into it to make sure that it doesn't happen again.  He still has not awoken from the surgery, except fo a couple of mumblings, which he always seems to do when he hears his baby sister's voice. 

On the positive front, the doctors tell me that the first 24 hours was the super critical time.  They feel that they saved the organs with the surgery as urine output remains good and he has not required insulin at all.  Doctor McChesney, his transplant doctor, told me that they did the right thing by doing the surgery, because without the kidney operating, the septic condition combined with the uremia that would develop without a functioning kidney would have been too much for anyone.  He says that we would have lost him for sure last night had it not been for an iron will.  John would tell you that it is because he is a Marine, and Marines simply don't lose fights. 

The doctors now think that things will start to turn around.  They are actually pretty confident that we have seen the worst of it.  One doctor told me that he would not be surprised if John woke up today and could be fairly mobile in bed.  They still plan to keep him until his blood tests show a great deal of improvement and they have asked that the TFT army leaves the hospital.  There was some press yesterday and it caused some problems.  John would be angry if he found out that he was responsible for the hospital not being able to efffectively treat people, so I think it is best that only family is here.  He hates visitors when he is in the hospital anyway, as it makes him feel like people can see him being weak and he has to be strong for those that can't be.  For the courageous man that I know him to be, sometimes he is just a silly boy.

Again, thanks for your kind words and thoughts.  Hopefully, the next update I give you will be in John's words.

Sprint beat me to it.

Positive new.  A ways more to go, but encouraging....

Great news..keep fighting John. May the doctors, nurses and hospital staff continue to find the best ways to treat him.

May you Stephanie feel the BT love too....being there watching and supporting is tough duty..

Wow. Good news. Will keep praying for this tough marine and triathlete.

Best news I've heard in a long time, keep up the fight, John!!

--Leslie

Thanks for the update.  Glad to hear things are looking somewhat better.

Mark

Yaaaaay! (UPDATE FROM STEPHANIE, JOHN'S WIFE)

John is awake!  John is awake!

Well, John was awake.  He woke up about 15 minutes ago and tried to sit up in bed.  It was very painful and I don't think he realizes exactly what has happened.  He said the first thing that he always says when he wakes up, "I'm hungry".  We asked the nurse what he could have and she said clear liquids.  He ordered broth and then started complaining about the catheter.  I went out to get his sister and when we came back in he was asleep again.  I tried to wake him to eat the broth but he would not wake up.

He was awake, though.  His donors mother is coming to see him tonight.  I hope he is awake when she gets here.

I feel like our prayers are being heard, for sure.  Let's keep praying for John and Stephanie, folks.

Great News!!  more prayers and good vibes being sent JD's way!