Monday, July 22, 2013

A Challenging Week

As some of you have seen, it's been a hard week for our family with the turn of events the week before last with my step dad, Joe. 


Taken last Christmas
To catch you up to speed, Joe was in an accident the Saturday before last as an off-duty officer (he's a Lieutenant in the Police Department) and a truck pinned him between the truck and wall, which caused two collapsed lungs, 13 broken ribs, and a kidney injury (here is an initial article about the accident, and here is a very touching video of a story the local news did about him two days later). He was in the ICU for a day to stabilize him and was moved to a regular room for the rest of last week where he made slow and steady progress and gained a great local following rooting for him. I equate it to be like the book/movie The 5 People You Meet in Heaven or It's a Wonderful Life (one of my all time favorite movies). We've all gotten to see just how great of an impact he's had on his community. I've been able to talk with him a few times since the accident and he said it has been very humbling to see all of the support and prayers come flooding in. I think it's encouraged all of us really.

Moving up to this past Friday (6 days since the incident), they removed his chest tubes (that had been helping his lungs) and he made good physical progress walking the hospital floor (reported in an update here). Saturday is where a few troubles started to arise with pneumonia, infection, and some internal bleeding (though not necessarily active internal bleeding). They got right on it with treatments (I won't go into too much detail here), yet Sunday (yesterday), things had progressed a bit more and they moved him back into the ICU to move forward with some additional treatments he needed.

Today, he's improving in some areas, but still has some areas of concern the doctors are taking care of, and they're determining next steps depending on his progress. It's been hard being far away (Iowa to Texas), yet I know if I were there in person, I couldn't heal him myself anyway;), and I know he has a great team (of family, doctors, and the community) helping him. 

Thank you to all of you that have been keeping him in your prayers. Please continue them as there will still be a long road to recovery. Also keep our family in your prayers as so many have been spending so much time at the hospital, and I imagine are quite exhausted in many ways. Joe is a strong tough guy, we just need to help him regain strength during this time when he needs it. It's also a time we can all appreciate him - and for that matter, appreciate all those we care about. It has been a reminder just how quickly things can change, and how precious life is. 

While he remains in the hospital, cards can be sent to him using this link the hospital provides. 

I'll have other "regular life" updates to write about at some point, but wanted to get this update as I know some of you have been wondering how he's doing. 


Pinspiration:
One of my very favorite verses:

(Pinterest source)
(Pinterest source)

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