4TH PATH : BRIAN FRANK STRONG

Well today has been a rollercoaster (mostly for me). Brian had a very eventful morning of OT, PT and Speech therapies. All reported increased responses and alertness. The nurses were excited to report this news to me, which always is a great way to arrive to the hospital. And Brian was more alert in my opinion, too! I let him rest (and snore) in between calls with our families. By the end of the day, his lab results came back reporting that he has a staph infection in his sputum (spit/mucus). Luckily it's not in his blood, he hasn't had more fevers and his white blood cell count is normalizing, so we can assume the broad antibiotics they started Monday are working & they adjusted them to specifically target the infection as of today. The treatment is 10 days, so rehab is postponed until everything is cleared up. Ten days sounds so long - but God has perfect timing. Trying to keep telling myself that. On the way home, the trooper that drove me home was flagged down to block ...

On Monday morning, Brian had a fever and elevated white blood cell count (i.e. an infection). The doctor ordered labs in order to determine the source of infection, therefore delaying his transfer to rehab x1 week, pending the results. We should have answers by tomorrow. God's timing is perfect, and we've been praying for him to arrive in the exact right window - so I'm trusting there's a reason it's not time to go yet. Aside from that, yesterday was pretty low key & stable. The weather was warm and perfect.  Brian's CRIMPAT team all came out to have lunch outside Brian's hospital window with me. Having their support since day one has continued to be invaluable to me & our family. 💙 Sometimes the nice weather days are even harder. I stopped at mine & Brian's house on the way back to my parents after my visit and it was unbearable. Standing in our our empty house...in the now lush backyard made my heart ache (last time we both were home, 72 d...

Transfer to rehab has been pushed to Wednesday of this week, only due to bed availability. Aside from a mild fever this AM & and elevated heart rate, by late afternoon, Brian was back to stable & restful. I notice on days like these, he has less eye opening - but everyone feels tired when fighting fevers so it doesn't worry me. On several occasions now, dear friends have come to sit outside Brian's room to pray and support us. Such simple gestures that feel monumental to me these days. Thank you, sincerely, for showing up. Whether that's been literally, or through prayer, or outreach of any format - thank you. God, please heal Brian. Please restore my husband, restore the Franks' son, restore Erin & Georgie's brother, restore Joey's brother in-law, restore my parents' son in-law, restore Layla's dad, restore this best friend, neighbor, co-worker, trooper... "He gives strength to the weary & increases the power of the weak" - Isa...

Keeping this update short - Brian had another good day. Stable vitals, a 45min OT session this morning left him sleepy, but intermittently 'alert' (eyes wide opened) throughout the afternoon and early evening. The plan is to transfer to rehab Tuesday, where we pray for Brian's tenacity to shine! I'm praying the Lord is able to restore, recover and make restitution for everything the enemy has stolen from us. Please pray with me that Brian emerges to full consciousness in this big next step! But if I go to the east, he is not there;     if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;     when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take;     when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps;     I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips;     I have treasured the word...

Well, we are in limbo. I haven't updated because there aren't any real changes. Brian is still recovering well from his cranioplasty - very stable! Wed - Sun of last week, he was very sleepy. Not a lot of eye opening, not many movements at all. It scared me, to be honest. Even though I kept telling myself he had major surgery and needed rest, my mind still raced to the worst places and my fears got the best of me. By Sunday, this entire circumstance exhausted & crippled me.  Thank you to everyone that showed up on the prayer gathering and picked me back up. I decided to take a day off from the hospital Monday and my sweet brother & Erin went and spent the day with Brian. I had a low-key day with 2 of my best friends that just sat with me and played with my hair and helped me nurse my headache. When we video called Brian, I was happy to see he was opening his eyes again while Erin did some OT with him.  Today, he was 'alert' (eyes open) for almost the whole day a...

Brian is settled back in at the LTAC as of Wednesday night. All of his vitals are stable and we are one week post-operation. Stitches are healing nicely. Brian has been less 'alert' the past two days, seemingly in a good deep sleep (I can tell because breathes heavier, sometimes subtly snoring) & his jaw loosens up and mouth is open (typically his jaw is clenched pretty tight). Less eye opening and body movements but I'm reminding myself that he's still healing from a major surgery & needs this rest. I was reading about cranioplasty healing and it says it can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks (makes sense) so I'm trying to soothe my impatience today with the fact that he's stable and appears to be getting great rest -- which he will need to soak up before we get to rehab where they'll be more hands on to help emerge him. I still pray he shows signs of regaining consciousness before we transfer though. Yesterday, 4 more stories about brain injury/coma surv...

Yesterday evening, they removed Brian's EVD! No shunt needed! 🙏🙌 Thank you God for answered prayers! They'll keep him for 24hrs at the ICU for monitoring, but Brian has been stable throughout. He will go back to acute care tomorrow and then we will establish a new timeline for transfer to rehab. He has started to spontaneously wiggle his toes and move his legs, so we're happy to see unprompted movements of his extremities! They say the best healing happens while you sleep, so I pray Brian's restful state in his coma is helping him heal as best he can, before he wakes. I pray he wakes SOON, even before the transfer to rehab, so we can begin recovery ASAP! Lord, I am ready to champion Brian's therapies & create a loving and healing place for him (as are all of his friends, family & co-workers)! I know we are all so eager to see him through those days! God, we've seen you perform miracles time and time again - I've learned of so many brain injury sto...

Today the plan was to challenge Brian's drain to monitor it for the next couple of days. After this morning's CT scan & after 2 days of low ICPs and draining, they decided to skip the challenge and clamp the drain - aka they feel confident that his brain is doing the work on its own and no shunt needed! Tomorrow AM he will go for another scan just to make sure everything is looking normal. Thank you God, for answered prayers! Otherwise, things are pretty calm - vitals are stable, swelling is coming down!

Today was a GOOD day! Thank you all for your prayers, Brian's cranioplasty went smoothly, his external drain (EVD) was successfully placed and vitals are stable! He was on full support (ventilator) during the operation and transitioned back to oxygen only immediately after with no problem! Surgeon said we could expect to notice him waking from anesthesia tonight or tomorrow given his neurological state, but his eyes were open by 2pm! He looks so awesome (and it's also obviously so nice to see him back to 'normal' with his skull back in place). When we left this evening his ICP was 6 (which is perfect! we want it 10 or under to let us know his brain is working everything out on it's own)! We are so relieved & thankful! Thank you God for your continued provision, protection & timing with Brian's healing and recovery! I'm only finishing sentences with exclamation points tonight! We're excited and expecting great things from here for Brian's com...

Brian's cranioplasty is scheduled for tomorrow (Fri 4/9) at 10am CST. I'll do my best to explain what I learned from the surgeon tonight: After reviewing Brian's CT scans since the time of the injury until now, it appears that the ventricles  in Brian's brain have enlarged slightly, implying that his cerebral spinal fluid *may* not be draining on his own properly, which would then require a shunt .  After the surgeon examined Brian in person, however, he saw that the area on his head where the cranium was removed has sunken significantly & is soft -- meaning that if there was indeed pressure build up, he would expect for that area to be swollen and/or hardened. Since that is not the case, he is assuming Brian won't need a shunt. Fun fact: He told me that sometimes for patients that have had a craniectomy, their brains get 'used' to the cranium not being there and can 'expand' - aka he brain gets comfy because it doesn't have the skull to cont...

Today we unexpectedly found out that the neurosurgery team from the original hospital decided to move forward with Brian's cranioplasty (replacing the skull cap that was removed on Feb 15th). I found out around 2pm and he was transferred by 5pm. The ISP family escorted the ambulance again 💙. The transfer was seamless. Brian's eyes were wide open for the whole thing. I saw him look toward the EMT and respond to blink commands (yes/no questions with one or two blinks). The EMT said he continued to reply with blinks during the transport - and while it could be coincidental, he was convinced they were intentional responses. I got to see one of them, and I definitely felt like it was different than what I've seen so far! As for Brian's surgery -- more than likely it will happen this Friday. The neurosurgeon reviewed his recent CT scans and believes Brian will need to have a shunt put in (which is a drain from the brain to the stomach to help his brain drain fluids). This is...

A quick update on Brian. Wednesday & Thursday (and this whole week) have been very calm & quiet. Brian is very stable, they have even removed the ventilator out of his room completely because those lungs are pumping just fine! Yesterday, I took my first day 'off' from the hospital and had my brother visit Brian for the afternoon. He said Brian had a very 'snoozy' day, so just less eye opening than I typically see, but rest is healing so I'm so thankful for this week of rest (and for a day for myself to recharge too). The doctors are still saying that Brian is making forward progress and the next facility is eager to have him and start to treat him. I keep praying for that to be the perfect timing & for Brian's moment of consciousness to be near. I wanted to share a detail about an early decision we had made to administer an Omega-3 treatment to Brian. Within the first couple of days in the CCU, one of his doctors presented this treatment option to me...

I ask that you all join me this Easter weekend in wrapping Lauren in prayer. (Special thanks to google and all the people who have written and posted prayers publicly that helped me piece this together)  With love for all of you,  and my dearest friend Lauren,  💛 Sam  Dear Lord, please bring to Lauren hope and strength renewed. Refresh her mind. Give her the perspective you want her to have. Help her to see your hand at work in this situation. Show her how to put her trust in you so that her mind can find the rest it needs. We know that we don’t have enough strength and fortitude for this, but you do. Your strength is made perfect in our weakness. With you, we are strong. Please make your strength very real to Lauren right now. Help her focus on what you want her to do next, keeping her eyes fixed on you instead of what’s going on all around us. Help her remember that she is a cherished child of the King of Kings. Speak peace to her mind. Calm her mind. H...