New Day, Positive Mood

It's a new day and a bright one thus far.  The sun is out, the view looking west from Christian's 5th floor room is beautiful.  First piece of good news, Christian is breathing on his own.  Although the ventilator tube is still in, he is breathing with minimal help from the machine.  They will need him on a ventilator during his surgery today so it will stay in for now.  Let's hope and pray that in the coming days they can remove the tube.  It's obvious that one of Christian's largest frustrations is not being able to communicate with us other than specific blinks for yes and no.

His sedation meds have been reduced and he's very alert this morning.  With this reduction in meds comes a little more activity in his throat so he has been gagging on the ventilator tube a bit, but otherwise seems comfortable.  He moved both legs slightly early this morning for Sheila and Jesica (sister).  He also moved his feet for the doctor and it appears he might have some slight feeling in his upper arms.  With this news comes caution that these good signs can quickly disappear, but we're hopeful and faithful that this will not be the case.

The surgery is scheduled for 3:45pm today.  As mentioned before, a team of neurosurgeons will fuse vertebrae C1 & C2.  That will stabilize his neck and allow him to be moved, sit up, lay down, etc.  We expect that he will fairly quickly be moved to the 12th floor where his rehabilitation will commence.  Once we know when this move will take place the blog will get an update. 

Jessi was able to get a solid 8 - 10 hours of long overdue sleep last night and is back refreshed this morning by Christian's side.  It's amazing to see the commitment, mental strength, physical strength and sheer willpower that Jessi is exerting on Christian's behalf.  It's clear that Jessi loves Christian very deeply and he's so lucky to have her.  May all of you offer a prayer on Jessi's behalf today asking for God to continue to grant her the strength that she needs to climb the mountain that has been placed before her.  It's also worth noting that Chris and Jess will celebrate their 1 year anniversary tomorrow.  The previously planned celebratory fishing trip Chris and Jessi had planned is on hold, but NOT canceled!  

Eric Jones and his wife Sue stopped by this morning.  Eric and Christian have been friends since they were in the 3rd grade.  They are hunting buddies, biking buddies, skiing buddies and whatever other outdoor adventure you can think of buddies.  You can imagine the toothy grins when Eric walked in to see Chris :-).  Eric rode mountain bikes professionally for many years, he was one of the best in the world.  He's now graduated to marriage and fatherhood, but still has a crazy side like Christian does.  It's clear that this has hit Eric very hard.  This is something that you can all relate to.  It has hit us all hard, we all love Christian so much.  May we all take comfort in the fact that we're all enduring some level of grief, but doing so together with each other and God.

More after the surgery.