Updates on Tom

 My dad was on air vo for a few days and today is on trach collar. He's been doing well on it and praying that continues. Thank you for continuing to join us in prayer!

Good morning- My dad is on high vo still but they are hoping to try to wean him and go to trach collar today. Praying he does well, that his 02 stat stays high, that he does great in speech therapy and can eat solids soon, and that he gets stronger and stronger in PT. Thank you for continuing to join us in prayer!

My dad has been on the trach collar for about 5 or 6 days now. Last night his oxygen saturation went down, so they had to put him on a high flow oxygen (not the vent). They're goal is to wean it down tonight and try the trach collar at 5 or 5:30 tomorrow morning. They said that this is part of the process and normal. But I'm praying that very soon he is able to get the trach. out for good and breathe well on his own, that he does well in speech therapy and can eat solids again soon, and gets stronger and stronger in PT each day. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.

My dad did the 12 hours on the trach. collar a few days ago and he also just did the 24 hours on the trach. collar! I am so grateful and I pray that he continues doing well so he can get off the trach. soon. It would be awesome if you could pray for dad to: 1) Continue making progress and be able to get completely off the vent soon so he doesn't need the trach. anymore and can breathe on his own for now on. 2) That he would do well in speech therapy and be able to eat solid food again soon. 3) That he can do great with PT to help him get better and stronger more quickly so he can come home to us sooner.  I know I thank each of you with every blog post I write, but my dad has always told me that it never hurts to say, thank you, so I will never stop thanking you for how much you care and for continuing to pray for my dad. We're so grateful for you.

I'm so thankful that they have been able to start weaning my dad off the ventilator. They were going to do 4 hours today, but he was doing so well, that they moved it to 5 hours. Their goal is 12 hours tomorrow and then if he does that, 24 hours the next day. He's obviously very frustrated, but I know that fight he has will help him in pushing forward. Today, I turned 43. I was upset that I didn't get to have my dad say Happy Birthday. When I sat down to dinner with my family, I got a FaceTime call from my dad. With all my dad has been through, he still remembered to call me and tell me, Happy Birthday. What a gift that was. (: Thank you for your continued prayers for the Lord to strengthen my dad, to give the nurses and doctors wisdom, and for the Lord to continue to lead the way with where dad needs to be so he can get stronger and come home as soon as he can. We're so thankful for each of you. Lord, I pray that you would meet the needs of each person reading this and

My dad’s ABG was too high this morning to try the trach collar. Praying it comes down soon so they can do the trach collar and he can keep moving forward. They also have been doing swallow tests to see if he can take in some liquids. Praying he’s able to pass that soon too.

The move to Emory LTAC went well. They’ll focus on getting off  the ventilator here as well as PT, OT, etc. they give people a few days of rest once they move and then the plan is to start the trach collar for four hours and increase from that. Praying he sleeps well today and does well on the trach collar tomorrow. Thank you for checking in and continuing to pray with us!

Dad did 14 hours yesterday on the trach. collar- hooray! The goal is to do 16 hours today. The plan is for him to move to Emory LTAC tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for praying that that goes smoothly, that he continues doing well on the trach collar and that he can get off of the vent completely soon, and that he would continue building up his strength as PT and OT work with him. Thanks so much!

This is from my brother, Corey: Hope your family has a great Easter. As we celebrate and rejoice the resurrection, I am praying that same light piercing through darkness, showing Hope to those who were hopeless, is the same light to shine on my Dad.   Trach collar progress for the week. Trach collar = off the ventilator and then rests back on the ventilator after. This is  what they do to build his diaphragm strength and move toward the goal of being completely off the ventilator.  Sun- 15 min Mon - 1.5 hrs  Tue - 2 hrs Wed - 4.20 hrs Thu - 6 hrs Friday - 7.45 hrs  Saturday - 10 hours Sunday - 12 hours If all continues like this, he would most likely move back to the LTAC facility next week.  They have more  capabilities to improve mobility and fully wean people off the vent. ____________ From Linsey: Thank you for joining us in prayer for the doctors and nurses to have wisdom as they help dad recover  and for the Lord to lead all the next steps so my dad will be right where he needs t

 I'm thankful that my dad has been able to add two hours to doing the trach. collar each day, which is basically like using a nasal canula since the vent is turned off during that time. He's up to almost 8 hours. Thank you, Lord. Praying he can continue increasing that so he can finally get off of it for good. The pneumonia is clearing up, and I'm praying that it clears up completely and doesn't come back.  I'm so glad I was able to see him yesterday and get to see him this morning. I'm so grateful that they allow visitors and that one of us has been able to go up and see him each day.  Happy Easter to each of you. I was talking with my dad about how rehab will be a lot of hard work but that that is what will lead to him getting better. I told him that Easter makes me think of what Jesus went through during that difficult time of dying on the cross, and then how he rose again which led to the wonderful gift of us being able to be with Him forever. That sometimes