February 23rd, 2009

I haven't had access to a computer for the last 3 days so I haven't been able to blog! Plus we have had SOOOO many visitors! So I guess I will blog about the visitors first!

On Friday David got a surprise visit from a friend and pastor of ours from Tehachapi, Brandon Kirby. Brandon stayed throughout the whole weekend and visited a lot with Dave on and off. Also on Friday Doug's mother Estelle and her sister Suzanne made the trip up from Southern California for the weekend to visit with David as well.

Then on Saturday he had a very big surprise that I kept from him ( I am so proud of myself!!) a group of Varsity kids from the AWANA group in Tehachapi who Dave hung out with in high school drove up and surprised him. They were in Livermore for a competition and since they were so close I couldn't say no to their request to come and see Dave. So late Sat night the following people drove over and saw him; Chris and Elliot Uribe, Ryan Epstien, Tori Epstien, Charlotte Karnes, Cody Watson, and Jill and Janee DeHart. They each only got to see him for a few minutes, but David was very surprised to see all of his friends and it cheered him up a bit. It was a late evening for him but it was a good end to the evening.

Then on Sunday our old friends that we have known forever, Kurt and Sondra Keckley, drove up from Bakersfield to spend some time with Dave. It was good to catch up with them and Dave really enjoyed seeing Kurt, Sondra too:) But Kurt was around when Dave was really little and it was nice that they came. Then late Sunday afternoon Monica LaMonte and my mom drove up from Tehachapi to stay with me for 3 days, and it has been wonderful having them here! Then as a bonus surprise my Uncle Greg and Aunt Dorothy showed up today out of the blue for a quick visit, they were up in Chico visiting other relatives so on the way back to Bakersfield they popped in to say hello and to pray with Dave and us.

Now as for Dave's overall health, he is basically the same. His liver numbers are going down, but they still have a long ways to go. We are hoping to be moved out of the ICU sometime this week and hope to be back on the heart transplant this week as well. He had a small "personal" problem this week, and I promised I wouldn't go into detail on the blog about it, but that was frustrating for him and he just wants to get better. He is so tired of being in the hospital and it is getting to be an "old scene" for him. He is ready to move on to the next stage but his body is just not cooperating. Please pray for his peace of mind and relaxation. He has been getting up and walking around and that is a good thing for him and will help him heal much faster.

I had to learn how to change his pump tube dressing today, that is now my new job. Lucky me! I told him that he was pretty lucky I was willing to learn how to do that since I wouldn't even help pull his teeth when he was younger! It actually wasn't all that bad, thankfully the nurses were incredibly patient with teaching me.

All in all we are slowly making progress... we can feel all the prayers that each one of you are sending and we are truly amazed how quickly his story is spreading.