Ugent Prayers for John Evans

I just saw that update this morning.  Heartbreaking that John and his children are going through this, still praying for a full recovery for Caroline.

Update 13: So no change today. Still on the ventilator. They reduced the sedatives and Caroline made it 45 minutes before they had to pump them up again. She just isn’t breathing properly or well enough yet to sustain being off the drugs or vent. The Dr. said they will try again tomorrow and every day after to get her off of the sedatives and ultimately off the ventilator. She is still set at the minimum ventilator settings so that sounds good. I just wish they could get her off of the thing already. This is day 9. With each day we run the risk of some other infection taking hold and/or other complications. I just want this to be over.
The Dr. told me tonight that he is cautiously optimistic because most of his patients would not have made it this far but she is still fighting.
I’m really trying to stay positive.
Jack came over for supper so it was nice to be with all of my kids tonight. They are the best.
Spent all day working out another tune to focus my mind on something else. Maybe I’ll post it later. The legendary vocalist Dale Thompson helped me out and sang it for me. He did a great job. It’s about growing old with someone.
I’ve got plans tomorrow to get some stuff into Caroline’s hospital room. One of you recommended I put a photo of me and the kids in her room so that when she wakes up she will see us. I thought that was a really good idea so I’m going to try to get a pic in a frame to the nurse to put in her room.
Someone else was amazingly gracious enough to get me a small bottle of water that is from the home where the Blessed Mother lived in Turkey, collected from a stream that runs under the home. It is said to bring healing. I’m going to ask the nurse to place some of it on Caroline’s forehead tomorrow. I hope they will do it for me.
One of you also left me a note that you would like me to read to Caroline. I’ll be sure to do that when we have our next Skype call with her. Maybe tomorrow or Monday. (And thank you for the shawl).
Your love and support for me and my family is so strong. I could never say thank you enough to you all. It means so much to me.

Update 14: This morning they tried removing the sedative completely again but they wound up having to place her back onto it. But the medication reduction goals they set for her throughout the day she was able to tolerate and meet so that’s a good thing! Tonight into tomorrow they will keep gradually reducing the sedative drugs and monitoring her progress. Then maybe try again to remove them completely in the morning. There are certain thresholds she needs to meet that she seems really close to but just not quite there yet. So I’m really hopeful that she can heal enough to meet each day’s goals. The Dr. has warned of possible long term complications, but we need to stay positive and cross those bridges if we come to them.

Today I got a photo of me and the kids into her room for her. And the nurse was also very nice and took the water from Meryemana and placed it onto Caroline’s forehead for me.

We are going to try another Skype call tomorrow. I’m hoping that if she has come off of or is in the process of coming off of the sedatives then maybe she will open her eyes and really hear us this time. I have a few of your letters to read to her so I will be sure to do that.

I have to say that when I type these updates and then hit POST, the flood gates open. Your thoughts and prayers that immediately come pouring out really do give us comfort. And especially the short little Caroline stories that showcase her antics. I love reading those.

Let’s all stay positive!

Yeah, this is going to be something that takes some time. Hopefully her lungs are mostly clear and she hasn't lost too much capacity in them.

Still praying for John's family daily.  But I think Jeff is right, this sounds like it's going to take a while.  Even when she get's back home I think a full recovery might take some time.

Yikes!!!

Update 15: Caroline had a bad day. She was bleeding internally and needed a transfusion. They also think she might have an infection. Her sedatives are lower than they were yesterday but while yesterday they got her up briefly and she responded to commands, today she is unresponsive. They are performing a procedure to stop the bleeding in her abdomen now and afterward are going to do a CT scan of her brain. I’m not sure if we will have results tonight. Might not be until tomorrow morning.
I wish I had better news to share. I wish I could rewind our lives by about 4 weeks. This is torture.
To my neighbors who all pitched in to snow blow and shovel my driveway today...If you are reading this I’m sorry that when I went outside to thank you I burst into tears. I’m just so overwhelmed at the moment and so so appreciative of you’re kindness and support. Thank you.
Caroline and I have been married over 21 years and so many times over those years we would listen to music while trying to go to sleep. Sometimes we’d argue about the playlist, but something we always agreed on was the Alice in Chains album Jar of Flies. Each song has an acoustic mellow vibe and it’s the perfect record to fall asleep to. We’ve listened to the songs on that record hundreds of times. So I spent the last 3 hours learning one of them.
Caroline, I love you so much. Here is my special version of Nutshell by Alice in Chains to help you sleep tonight.

Update 16: I just spoke with her nurse. The procedure to stop the bleeding in her abdomen was successful! The CT scan of her brain showed no issues! Still have concerns about the possible infection, and of course still need to get off the ventilator. But it sounds like some of the setbacks we had today they were able to fix.

Oh come on Caroline! Let’s go! Enough with the drama already!

Glad to hear that. I'm sure they'll be able to handle the infection if she has one.

It's nice to finally hear some good news (even if it isn't that she is going home).  My heart just breaks for John and his children.

Update 17: Caroline had a much better day today. The procedure to identify and fix her internal bleeding was a success. Yesterday they gave her three bags of blood, then last night another bag, and this morning another. But she hasn’t had the need for more. Regarding the possible infection, some of the testing still isn’t back yet but the ones that have come back so far have been negative. She is still unresponsive and that is the DR’s main concern at this point, but while they really let her rest today, tomorrow they are going to wake her up and try to get her to respond to commands. Today was day 12 on the ventilator. We lost two days of trying to get her off it with the complications yesterday but it sounds like we are resuming tomorrow. Honestly, it sounds like tomorrow is going to be a big day. Let’s gather the prayer army tonight and really give it all we have. Who’s with me!!??

Something really special I’ve been working on for a few days will be coming tonight. Stay tuned.

It's hard for John and the kids to see his wife and their mom on this way.
It takes so long before she can breath without a machine.
All kinds of complications are coming.

I'm with you Fundy.

Update 18: They tried to get her up today but she became agitated and her breathing was erratic so they had to re-sedate her. They suspected she was bleeding again in her abdomen so they performed the same procedure they did the other day. They found two areas where she was bleeding and they were able to fix both of them. She is still not responding to their commands so that is a concern, but since her brain CT scan didn’t show anything I’m feeling better about it. She is probably just so wiped out from all of this and confused when they try to wake her up.

All of that being said, I think we actually had a pretty good day. The Dr. said he is confident that her lungs are ready to come off of the ventilator. The vent settings have been at their minimum for days and today they turned it off and she breathed on her own for two hours. In fact he said that if she were to have been calm today and responded to their commands that he would have taken her off of the ventilator. But I guess she wasn’t quite ready for that today.

So they will try again tomorrow. And we will continue to take things day by day. The Dr. seemed positive today so that’s making me feel positive.

Today was day 13 on the ventilator. Over the course of those 13 days our army has grown significantly. The prayers have grown significantly, And the support has been amazing, absolutely amazing. I realize now how many lives my wife has touched over the years and it just makes me so proud of her. She is a really good person and she did not deserve this.

She needs to get better now and come home to all of us.

Amen and Hallelujah! I'm so happy for John.

Update 20: We are on cloud 9! We had a Skype call with Caroline. It was me and the kids, and we invited Caroline’s mother, Helen over to join us. When we began to speak Caroline opened her eyes really wide and started looking around. We continued talking and you could definitely tell she heard us. We asked her on TWO separate occasions to raise her eyebrows and she did it! She responded to OUR commands! I’m still trying to take it in but it was an incredibly emotional moment. One of those that you know you will never forget.
We spoke with her for about a half hour and we played her the Carole Baskin video. The whole time she was opening and closing her eyes, looking around, moving her head around. She is half out of it, but I just knew that if they were taking her sedation down all day that we might have success Skyping her tonight because her sedation would be so low, and it worked.
We kept reminding her to be calm and stay relaxed so when the doctors speak with her she needs to follow their commands and then they will take her off the machine. We must have told her that 5 times. Hopefully it sunk in.
I really hope we get good news tomorrow, but for right now I am so happy. I think I may actually get a good night’s sleep tonight.
If she goes another day on this ventilator I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Hard to top today. I guess I’ll have to get a hold of heartthrob actor Jamie Dornan (who she loves!) and see if he will send her a message. I always catch her watching Jamie Dornan movies or tv shows behind my back.

Brilliant news!  So happy to hear she is turning a corner.  We'll continue to pray for her.

Praise God for this.
What an awesome news.
I'm glad she's doing better now.

Another update. Keep praying my friends.

Update 22: Caroline was taken off of the ventilator. The hospital Skyped us right afterward and we were able to talk with her for a bit. She was listening to us and nodding her head when we would ask her questions. It was so great. We hung up the phone. I made my usual update calls to Caroline’s mother, my mother, and my father to tell them all the fantastic news. Then I sat at my computer and wrote out a message to you all to share the news. I’m halfway through writing that and the Dr. called to tell me that her breathing declined and they made the decision to put her back on the ventilator.
The Dr. said he believes her vocal cords are damaged and swollen and that is what is causing her to not breath well enough. They will try to get her off of the vent again on Sunday.
This is torture. It is unfair. I want my wife back. I just feel defeated.
Today is day 15 on the ventilator. I can’t imagine what she is going through and how scared she must be. Waking up, going back to sleep, waking up, getting a glimpse of us, then going back to sleep...over and over.
I wish I had better news to share.
I know we need to stay positive, but at the moment that’s pretty hard to do.

It sounds like she is heading in the right direction!

Still praying for your wife, John!

I'm with you Staybrite, the healing is on the way.
That's what I do too John, praying for Caroline.

Been away from here for a while and just catching up tonight. Wow. I’m praying for you all.

Jen5 wrote:

Another update. Keep praying my friends.

Update 22: Caroline was taken off of the ventilator. The hospital Skyped us right afterward and we were able to talk with her for a bit. She was listening to us and nodding her head when we would ask her questions. It was so great. We hung up the phone. I made my usual update calls to Caroline’s mother, my mother, and my father to tell them all the fantastic news. Then I sat at my computer and wrote out a message to you all to share the news. I’m halfway through writing that and the Dr. called to tell me that her breathing declined and they made the decision to put her back on the ventilator.
The Dr. said he believes her vocal cords are damaged and swollen and that is what is causing her to not breath well enough. They will try to get her off of the vent again on Sunday.
This is torture. It is unfair. I want my wife back. I just feel defeated.
Today is day 15 on the ventilator. I can’t imagine what she is going through and how scared she must be. Waking up, going back to sleep, waking up, getting a glimpse of us, then going back to sleep...over and over.
I wish I had better news to share.
I know we need to stay positive, but at the moment that’s pretty hard to do.

16 years ago when my son was born, my wife went into sepsis. She spent over a month in the ICU in a drug induced coma. When she was wheeled in, she was given a 20% chance of living. Every day I sent out an email to a long list of our friends detailing her health. I can totally understand what he is going through. One day it would be good news, the next bad news. This cycle went back and forth and drove me crazy. I got to the point where I hated even sending out the emails and talking to people about it. By the grace of God, she is here today in good health. Even the doctors had to admit that she was a miracle. It's not impossible for God. But I also had the attitude that if He saw fit to take her, then I would see her again one day. John and the family are deeply in my prayers.

Update 24: The bad news, Caroline is still on the ventilator, today is day 17. The good news is that I had a Skype call with her this afternoon and she looked WAY better. She still has the tube in so she couldn’t talk but she was up and alert. Nodding her head when I asked her questions, and she waved her hand at us. It’s the best I’ve seen her throughout this whole thing.

Dr. said that they are just going to give her a bit longer and watch her overnight, then tomorrow they may try to take her off the ventilator.

So I’m really encouraged at this point. Seeing how she was today really makes me think that she actually is going to be ok.

She is still very weak and will probably have to go to a rehab facility for a bit before she comes home.

So overall I think today was a really good day!

Update 25: Well the saga continues. They did not try to remove her from the ventilator today. They felt she still needed another day to get rid of some fluid and improve on a few other things, but it seems like we are really close. I had a Skype call with her this afternoon and she looked even better than yesterday. She seemed very awake and alert. She nodded confidently at my comments and questions, and didn’t seem too bothered by the tubes going down her throat.

I spoke with her for about 20 minutes and told her that if she felt anxious or just wanted to talk to me that whenever the nurses were in the room she should just point to the ipad and the nurses would know that she wanted to Skype call me.

Sure enough about 2 hours later my phone rang and it was her and the nurse. The nurse said she was getting a little uneasy and wanted to call me. I calmed her down and told her the worst of everything was already over and that she did great. The most important thing now was for her to just stay calm and follow all instructions from the Doctors and nurses. We spoke for about 15 minutes and she seemed fine.

She seemed more herself today than I’ve seen since she was admitted, so that was really encouraging. I do see a light at the end of the tunnel now. I think she is going to be ok. She will probably need quite a bit of rehab and may not come home right away after she is off the ventilator, but after that I think she will be ok.

So best case scenario, they get her off of the ventilator for good tomorrow. Worst case, they try and it doesn’t work again, then they have to put it back in. If that occurs then we will probably do a tracheostomy. This will just move the ventilator tube from her mouth to a small hole they will make in her throat. It will make her more comfortable and allow her more time to heal with less risk of complications. So if that happens, of course I, we, will be disappointed, but it is ok. It’s just buying her more time. I still feel, and to do the Drs., that she will get through this and get off the ventilator and be ok.

Today was day 18 on the ventilator.

These past few weeks have been the scariest and most stressful I’ve ever had. Enlisting this army of prayer warriors and reading the comments you all leave on these posts every night alleviates some of the stress and is very helpful. Thank you all for the prayers and support. It’s been amazing.

Update 27: So she just Skyped me again. I got on the video call and the nurse told me she wrote on a piece of paper ‘Call Husband’. I said wow that’s great you’re writing now! I said is something wrong that you wanted to call and she shook her head no. I said do you want to tell us something? Can you write it down? The nurse gave her a pen and paper and she wrote ‘Miss Home’. So we chatted for a few minutes. Nick came in and talked with her. Then, after about ten minutes while I was in the middle of telling her something, I can’t remember what, she just waved at the camera. I said do you want us to go and she shook her head yes. LOL I guess she had enough of me babbling on and on. But what am I supposed to do? These conversations are very one sided!! The old Caroline is coming back!