Tuesday Update

So if it's possible to have a worse day than any of the days last week, then this may have been that day. Bryan had a good sleep last night (thank you for praying) but was quite tired again this morning. His legs and back were giving him a lot of pain again too.

The main issue today was his breathing. He seemed short of breath and it just wasn't normal. One of Bryan's previous nurses happened to walk by this afternoon and mentioned that Bryan's breathing wasn't very good. It went from bad to worse and when the physiotherapist came to take Bryan for a walk, he barely made it out the door. He had to lie back down on the bed and his breathing just got worse and worse. He got to the point where he was hyperventilating and was very confused when they asked him his name and where he was. He was panicking and not sure what was going on - he was getting really scared (and so were we.) It ended up that a whole bunch of nurses and doctors (a resident, two of the surgeons that did Bryan's surgery last week, a heart specialist and maybe others) were in the room working on him. They gave him oxygen and it finally seemed to calm him down. They did some blood work and ordered an urgent CT scan. When the one doctor spoke to us, he said they were concerned about the possibility of either blood or water on the brain but more likely a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs). As we waited for the results of the CT scan, we prayed, pleading with God for everything to be okay. Well, God answered our prayers and the CT scan was clear. The brain looked fine, the other aneurysm was still intact and there was no pulmonary embolism visible.

By the time Bryan was back to his room (his original bed back in the ICU), he was doing quite well. It almost seemed as though nothing had even happened - except that he was exhausted. They have done some more tests (ECG's and more blood work) and I think tomorrow they will be doing a CT angiogram to look at things a little better. They've put him on IV Heparin just in case there is a blood clot they missed. I did hear a nurse say that perhaps there was a small blood clot causing the problem, and if it was small enough, his body may have just absorbed it.

When we left the hospital tonight, Bryan was resting and hopefully he's exhausted enough that he'll have a nice deep sleep. There's no one in the bed beside him so hopefully it will be quiet enough for that to happen.

Obviously we need you to continue praying for Bryan's physical healing but please also pray for Michelle. She's such a trooper and God's giving her strength exactly when she needs it but she's exhausted - physically and emotionally.

Thank you for your continued love, support and prayers.