Week four in intensive care...

Tomorrow it'll be a month since my Dad first went into hospital for surgery, and this is the beginning of his fourth week in the intensive care unit. In case it's been a while since you heard an update, let me summarise where things are at.

This time last week, after fifty one heart stoppages over the previous four days, doctors were basically telling us that Dad had only a few hours left to live and that we could expect him to go at any moment. Although it was now established that the brachycardia had been caused by a drug they had given Dad to regulate his heartbeat, there was concern that having his heart stop more than fifty times would just have weakened him too much and that he wouldn't be strong enough to fight the underlying abdominal infection. One doctor even told us rather bluntly that there were nine consultants on the ward and none of them believed that Dad would ever leave the ICU alive. I asked whether there was any chance that Dad could come off the ventilator so that we would be able at least to speak to him before he died... and the consultant replied, "I very much doubt it."

Well, three days later, the heart episodes had stopped, Dad was off the ventilator for a while, and was sitting up in a chair, eating ice cream and talking to us about what he remembered of his experiences. He has been off the kidney (dialysis) machine for a week now, and blood tests show that his kidney function is improving slowly but surely. One day he was even off the ventilator and breathing on his own for nine hours.

Since then, however, he has been feeling exhausted and in quite a bit of pain. Nurses tell us that he was doing so well after his dramatic turnaround, that perhaps medical staff tried to take things too fast and didn't wean him from the ventilator slowly enough. He's been feeling so tired that he hasn't been eating again over the past few days, although he still keeps asking for things to drink. Yesterday they decided just to let him have a day in bed to sleep and rest, rather than working to help him sit up or breathe for too many hours on his own. 

The plan now is to take things a little more slowly: to put him overnight on a ventilator mode that will really give his body a good rest, and to continue working during the day to give him some hours of breathing on his own and sitting up in a chair. He'll continue to have line feed overnight, but they'll stop that during the daytime to see if he'll start eating a little soup and yogurt again. He'll continue with physiotherapy for his lungs and limbs, and he'll get morphine for the pain whenever needed.

The difference between last Sunday and this Sunday is nothing short of miraculous, and we know that we have been held up by the prayers of many of you around the world. As we begin week four in intensive care, here are the things we are all praying for:

• that Dad will begin to build up strength again and will not feel so weak and exhausted all the time.
• that he will know relief from the pain and discomfort which contribute towards his feeling so exhausted.
• that the antibiotics will continue to do their job and that he will be able to overcome the underlying infection in his abdominal cavity.
• that his kidney function will continue to improve from day to day.

We are incredibly grateful to God, and to the many people who have been praying, for the amazing improvements we've seen in my Dad over the past week.