Tuesday, June 24th

Today was a rough day, but it started out well and so far the evening is going well also. This morning, Dave had a CT scan to check to see if there was any extra air in his abdominal cavity and if they could locate the area of infection. The doctors were pleased with the results as there were no signs of air and they could not locate the infection.
Doctors are still talking about putting Dave on dialysis. The kidney doctor said that "Dave was fighting for his life" and he would like to put Dave on dialysis tomorrow. The doctor hopes dialysis would be temporary. That was really hard to hear. Later on in the day, Brad asked Dr Vargas for his opinion on that comment. Dr Vargas said that looking at Dave's chart, his condition does look very, very bad, but he said that he has worked with Dave the last week and Dave is doing better than the picture that is painted in his chart. Dr Vargas said that for Dave's age, Dave is in very good shape. He said that most men Dave's age would be on twice the medication Dave is on but would be only doing half as good. Dr Vargas said that Dave is very sick and had a lot of trauma, but all things considered is very fortunate and we just need to keep praying.
Dr Grant, (the liver doctor), said that the blood flow to Dave's liver is okay. They may end up having to take out just a part of the liver. But if blood flow continues as it is and there are no clots, then the majority of Dave's liver should live. Dr Grant also reminded us that due to all the trauma, Dave was probably going to get worse before he got better. As the day progressed, Dave continued to have problems with extreme pressure on the bladder and abdomen. The doctors were concerned that the pressure was so severe that it would damage the surrounding organs. They gave Dave medication, increased the sedation, and temporarily paralyzed Dave again hoping his stomach muscles and bladder would relax. The doctors were going to do surgery today to fix this issue, but thankfully they did not have to because the next test results were much better. Because of the infection, Dave's temperature as right around 101.9. The doctors are hoping that this will soon come down as soon as the infection is cleared up. Dave's blood pressure and heart rate increased throughout the day. The doctors and nurses wanted to get this under control before Dave was at significant risk of a heart attack. They decided to give Dave a beta block. Literally within seconds, Dave's heart rate dropped from 133 to 115. Because we didn't know how Dave's body would react to the medication, we were so happy. The nurse said she was going to do cartwheels down the hall! The plan at this point is to give Dave a beta block every 6 hours or as needed. The doctors also plan to keep Dave under sedation for the next few days, allowing his body time to heal.
Brad and mom are the visitors tonight, I just got off the phone with Brad and he said Dave is doing well. Please continue to pray for Dave. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better. Today it seemed like every time we would switch out visitors, there was more bad news. What a roller coaster! Thank you again for the prayers.