Christopher is improving daily. He has a low grade fever and is sweating a lot
so we got a fan for him to make him more comfortable. He also has a fast heart
rate (tachycardia) as his body adjusts to being weaned off the Fentanyl (
narcotic for pain relief) .He will soon be off the narcotic and it will be
replaced with another medication. He is totally off the anesthesia drug that he
had been on for several weeks but it will take up to 5 weeks to totally clear
out of his system.
His MRI showed no brain stem injury which was very
good news and still shows bruising to both temporal lobes as expected .We had
already seen this on his CT.
He also had an EEG to check his brain
activity for seizure which came back negative. We are still waiting on the
facial plastic surgeons to determine when they will surgically repair his
fractured mandible (jaw).
We are pleased on the good news to report about
his other fractures: scapula (shoulder blade), clavicle (collar bone) small hand
fracture, sacrum (tail bone) and several small vertebral fractures and pelvic
fracture. All are beginning to heal with his being immobile for almost a month
and the doctors have elected NOT to operate on any of these.
He is still
on the ventilator to help him breathe but he is breathing some on his own. He
also has only 1 IV line that he is receiving a strong antibiotic and his pain
medication. Christopher is definitely moving his arms and legs, hands and
face. All good signs.
He will soon be transferred to Shepard Center
(as soon as an ICU bed is available) to begin a rigorous course of
rehabilitation and physical therapy (up to 6 hours a day) We know with
Christopher's' personality he will up to the challenge.
Shepherd
Center is one of the nation's leading hospitals specializing in medical
treatment, research and rehabilitation for traumatic brain injuries (the type
that Christopher has experienced) so he will be in excellent hands. Please keep
us in your thoughts and prayers. Everyone has been so gracious and kind and
the Heitzman family truly appreciates the outpouring of the community's
generosity.
Randy was able to personally meet and thank the first
responders (firefighters) this week who used the Jaws of Life to pull
Christopher from the wreckage. They had no idea what had happened to Christopher
and were touched and glad to hear how Christopher was doing.
Praise God this is amazing news!!!! How awesome!!!! This made me smile as I'm sure you all are!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm still praying and I'm glad to see so many improvements!!
Wonderful to hear about Christopher's progress! Many people in the area continue to ask about him and his progress and continue to pray! Although none of us know you personally, we all rejoice at each bit of good news! God continue to bless and comfort all of you!
ReplyDeleteThis is great news! The Schmitz family is still checking your blog and praying for all of you daily.
ReplyDeleteWonderful news! God continues to answer prayers. So happy to hear that his condition is improving at an increased rate. The results of the MRI and EEG are encouraging. Thank you again for providing the updates. We will continue to pray for the family.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome news. I check daily for updates and each day gets better and better. Thank the good Lord for that!! He has an excellent support system, many of which are unknown to you, that are praying hard for him everyday, and will continue until he has totally recovered and rehabilitated. Meeting the first responders, how wonderful was that! They obviously did a great job to get Christopher the help he needed ASAP, and I am sure there are strong emotions on everyone's part. Randy and Debbie, and Davis, hang in there and stay strong. The updates are just a small portion of what you experience everyday, but what I read each day continually gets better, now at a more rapid pace. This is wonderful! God bless all of you each day with strength, endurance, hope, courage and faith! Christopher is strong, a fighter, competitive, and he WILL win this challenge.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful news! It makes my day to see good news on Chris every morning, So happy for you Debbie and Randy that you can now take a little breath of relief, I know Christopher still has a long way to go but he has come a long way already, thank you God for your blessings on this family.
ReplyDelete