Thursday, November 18, 2010

Update: 11/17/10

Wednesday was a full but very good day for Ronnie. Below are the posts from his mom.

He had a short wound care today since they did a huge one yesterday morning. Then PT was in to keep all his joints bending to prevent tightness. They had him sit on the edge of the bed today too! Pastor Johnston flew all the way from Tulsa just to visit Ronnie! He recited Psalm 121(since paper is not allowed in the room) The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade at your right hand!... Very encouraging words for Ronnie and all of us! We were so encouraged by his visit! On the heels of Pastor's visit, Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell came to visit. He was burned at the Pentagon on Sept. 11th. He was able to encourage Ronnie about the future! It has been a tiring, but blessed day for Ronnie and us! Thank you for your continued prayers.

We had such a great visit with Ronnie tonight! He was very talkative and so much more alert! He said he wished he hadn't been doped up when Pastor Johnston visited! Medically Ronnie is doing great! He had a chest x-ray that showed some ...patchy areas still, but his lungs are stable. His skin grafts are adhering very well. Of the skin grafts that are his own skin (auto-grafts) 97% are "taking" leaving about 3% to be re-grafted. 5-7% of his burn is still cadaver and will have to be grafted with his own skin. So all in all about 10% of his burn is left to be re-grafted! He is not healing as fast as they would like, but they are still very pleased with his progress. His liver enzymes levels have been high due to a medication he has been taking, so they have cut back on that medication. They are still giving him zophran every 6 hours for nausea. The speech therapist suspects that his vocal chords have become "paralyzed". With therapy the damaged vocal chord may function normally in time. Ronnie's temperature has been normal for the last 5 days after surgery! (high risk time for infection) Ronnie is dealing with so many issues... continue to pray for him to have strength to work his way through this ordeal. They are concerned with the fact that he lays so stiff and doesn't want to move around much. He is starting to acquire some pressure sores! But... overall they are so pleased with his progress and disposition!! Sorry about the long update, but there are so many issues to report! We love you all and thank you for lifting Ronnie up in prayer!!


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