Praising God Tonight!

(This is Julie)  I am filled with thankfulness and relief today.  I was so anxious about this morning--the day the cryo-therapy and the sedation came off.  There were lots of ways this day could have gone and I was fearful, but our God is SO good!  Things couldn't have gone better, today.  Brian woke shortly after the sedation medication was stopped.  He was responding appropriately to commands and recognizing people and opening his eyes the best he could. He was even writing his requests on a tablet of paper and trying to talk. He was very uncomfortable until they took the breathing tube out and stopped cooling his body.  The medical staff was amazed at how quickly he was able to get the respirator removed (a couple hours after waking rather than days!)  

As the day went on and he became increasingly aware and more able to talk.  Everyone is overjoyed at how well he is doing. . . everyone except Brian.  He is just now going through a lot of the emotions that we have been processing for the last couple of days.   He was very sad and discouraged today. His strong fit body is healing remarkably fast and we expect to see continued improvement each day.  Please pray that his spirits are lifted and he begins to see more of the positives that we are all so excited about.  He still doesn't really know what happened, though I think he has pieced together a lot of it.  By the time I left him late this evening, he seemed much more at peace.  We were able to spend some good time together just the two of us.  My brother is staying the night with him.  They called when they were going to bed and Brian had even gotten to eat a little applesauce and some ice chips.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and messages and help with everything.  I feel so much support and love.  I know many people want to help out in some way and I will try to let people know our needs as they arise.  Please don't send flowers to the hospital as they are not allowed in the CCU.  And for those that helped Brian in any way on the soccer field I can never thank you enough--you saved his life.