Evening all,

Sorry we are late with this post. We have been experiencing technical difficulties trying to get my sound card operating, so we can burn some CD's for Randy to listen to. I think we have it going for now. I can tell by the number of phone calls, that one blog a day is just not enough for you guys! OK, so here's the latest:

We had a really great day. He was sleepy and distant this morning, but by this afternoon, he was much more awake, and somewhat alert. By evening, he was less awake, but when he was awake, he was even more alert! He is moving both hands today, as well as both feet. Not a large range of movement, but more than just squeezing. He sometimes seems frustrated, and other times seems calm and coherent. They seem to think this is mostly due to the meds, and the location of the brain fluids. (When the brain fluids are more on the left side, he seems to move and think better.) His fever is down to 97, and has remained low for a couple of days now.

Tomorrow they will be putting in a permanent shunt. For those that may not know about this procedure, here is my interpretation: The brain normally makes about 2 coke cans of brain fluid each day. This liquid is expelled through veins/arteries to the spinal column, and from there it travels to the body's organs and is released from the body as urine. For Randy, there is a "filter" at the spinal chord that is "clogged up" and so that normal route is blocked and wont let the fluid escape through its normal route. Right now, he has a tube coming out of the top of his head, that is draining out into a bag that catches this fluid. Since we have been here, this liquid has been red, indicating lots of blood in this fluid. In the past few days, however, it has cleared up, which indicates that it is no longer washing out blood from the aneurysm bleed. In tomorrows procedure, (as I understand it) they will run this tube on the inside of his body. It will run from his brain, and outside the skull area, but under the skin, behind his ear, down through an artery in his neck, down to his stomach, where it can then be released as urine. They have told me that this is a very common procedure, that many basketball players have this done. It is also common in children. While it is risky to some degree, it is also a common procedure, and we shouldn't worry TOO much!

I am hoping to catch Dr. Smith tomorrow and get some answers to some questions regarding rehab, and at some point they will move his feeding tube from his nose to a peg in his stomach. Not sure much about this procedure, or when they will be doing it. Also have questions regarding his bone flaps, (skull) when they might be replaced. I have been told that they probably wont replace his bone flaps until after he gets out of SICU.

I am not sure what time he is scheduled for the shunt operation, they just told me it would be tomorrow morning sometime. As soon as I know something, I will keep you posted.

Much love to all,
Felisha

P.S. For those of you that are following Jessica's story: (The Portales girl that was in an awful wreck a week before Randy got here) We saw her and her father in the lobby tonight. She is progressing quite well. She remembers Matt from the Rec Center, was talking some, and seemed quite alert. She appears to be well on her way to recovery! We have all been including her in our prayers. She has been through some really tough times this past month or so.