I'm realizing that it's going to be nearly impossible to keep up to date as often as I thought. My posts are probably going to be shorter and not as often, but I'm sure that's ok.
Suffice it to say that all the major surgeries for Jim are done. There are probably going to be more down the road, but all that can be done for bone fixing has been done.
They were able to close up his abdomen part way this last week. All the muscle has been closed, and the skin in partially closed with large stitches about every inch or so, with it being left open to drain in between the stitches. The final stitching up will be done later on, when more swelling has gone down. Jim is still very swollen. But they are giving him medicine to help with that. The fluid is neither in the cells or his blood stream, but inbetween the layers of tissue, so it really simply takes time for that to go away. The medicine can help, but really it's just time as well.
They have started backing down on the seditives. He was on major high doses of it, and they've backed down to about half the original dose over the course of a couple days. His temp is still high, it seems to follow a course of going really high, and then coming down again just to go right back up over the course of the next day. He has chills and sometimes tremors. The doctor thinks it's a combination of the fever and also maybe related to withdrawal issues from the medicines, so they are going to stop backing off on the seditive for a few days to let his body catch up.
He is making more facial expressions. Mostly frowning, and pained expressions, but it's nice to see any expression on his face at all. I can see him swallow occasionaly as well. Any time they mess with him his heart rate goes up and he starts to breath more rapidly so he is becoming a little more aware of the pain.
The doctors tell me that this is going to be the truly hard part for me, seeing all the pain he is in. And of course it'll be way harder for Jim. He was so sedated before he wasn't really aware of anything. Now he's going to become more aware, and it's not going to feel good at all. So much of him is broken.
So we still need your prayers and blessings, all that we can get.
And I want to say how thankful I am to all our friends and family for the outpouring of love and concern for us and our family. It means a lot to me, and I'm sure when Jim realizes the massive support we've received during this time that he'll be thankful as well. What a blessing to us you all are.