Thank you and update from LuAnne

Hello everyone ~

Let me just start way back at Sunday evening.....

WOW what an event ~ our family is truly blessed to have this kind of support, we are deeply touched by all the love that is surrounding us :) How do we EVER begin to thank everyone for all their efforts in making the evening what it was?!!! We THANK & appreciate all who were involved and all who attended from near and far in person and in spirit!!

Speaking of attending in spirit ~ yesterday Hayley Shaw (Darren too) came up to see Brian in the hospital. I was out in the waiting room when Hayley came back from seeing Brian and she was crying :( "The tears are all his fault", she said. I guess through tears Brian had apologized to Hayley for not being able to attend on Sunday.......yes this is the great man I married even with all he is going through he is still thinking of others! Brian had expressed to me, when we were in Emergency on Saturday, how upset he was that he knew he wasn't going to be able to go on Sunday.......we had been working towards that evening for so long!

Monday was a quiet day after the intubation tube was put in during the middle of the night......I sat with him for a good part of the day. He knew we were around ~ he would try to open his eyes & he could squeeze my hand.

Tuesday morning the boys and I headed up first thing in the morning. Brian was much more alert and was happy to see his guys ;) He wanted to communicate with us and was becoming frustrated when he couldn't.......its sad knowing he wants to say something to us and can't.
Tuesday afternoon after I left the ALS technology people came down to see Brian. They brought him a "letter board" - its a laminated paper with the alphabet & words on it.

The boys and I went up again on Wed. after school. Brian knew Bryce had a hockey game on Tuesday night. Since the play-offs have started if the team wins, Brian is awarded the game winning puck!! Bryce brought his Dad another puck from Tuesday night's Victory......Brian gave him a "thumbs up"

Now that Brian has the "letter board" we are able to communicate through spelling and making sentences!! Bryce said, this is just like playing charades!! At one point Brian was trying to tell us something ~ he spelled out F A C E I T......face what?? Bryce finally figured out he wanted to face the TV......of course!!!!

Thursday morning Brian had a Peg Tube (feeding tube) inserted in his stomach. It was something that he was planning on having done even before this hospital visit came about. I was relieved it was being done while under their care rather than the out patient surgery it was going to be :) When I arrived later in the day, even after the surgery Brian was alert enough to ask me how Blake did in his first play-off game on Wed night. When I said, "they lost", Brian shed a tear for Blake :( He loves watching his boys play hockey and always wishes they do well.

Although no cultures have come back positive for pneumonia he does/did have some kind of infection ~ they are continuing to treat him with antibiotics. They are working each day at weaning him off of the ventilator to the point where they can remove it completely and put him back on the Bipap machine to see how he is going to do with his breathing on that. He has been a trooper!! He understands why the tube is in his throat and isn't fighting it......

We meet with the Doctors daily to get an update & the plan for what's next........I shall "type" again soon......

xoxo
LuAnne, Brian , Blake & Bryce