Praying! 

Praying and asking God for healing!

Mike, I just prayed for Preston and Pete and Stacy and I will continue to do so. Please keep us posted… 

Ron 

Thanks for your prayers. I spoke with Pete late yesterday and he said that there was a bit of improvement for his brother.

Update: Yesterday was real touch and go. He had severe flu, pneumonia, lung infection and his transplanted kidney was rejecting. They were pumping 100% oxygen with BiPAP  which they said would put a normal person’s oxygen level to about 600, Preston’s was as low as 20. His lungs were totally full of fluid. They finally were able to do one round of dialysis which they removed 3 liters (3 IV bags) full of fluid which helped him breathe a little better last night.

Latest: His daughter has posted on Facebook (2 am Wed) that he took a turn for th worse

“Dad’s been intubated and now is sedated with a ventilator. his breathing didn’t improve and started to get worse with the mask. Now, were waiting for his stats to go back up.”

3am: Lungs are worse now with pneumonia than yesterday, but their hope is to now have all his energy spent on fighting the pneumonia rather than fighting to breath like he was.

I want to thank all you prayer warriers for lifting my brother and our family up to the Lord. Most of the family are believers as is Preston. Yesterday as I heard the worst and was driving home from work and my chest felt like I was having a heart attack, suddenly I felt a strong sense of peace that everything was going to work out OK. I shared that last night and my wife sensed the same thing as did my niece (his daughter). I’m sure its all or your prayers.

One more positive: My estranged oldest son Jason was there as was my estranged older brother Ron (he’s between me and Pres). That was a true blessing. They both don’t know the Lord.

God Bless all of you

In His Grace,

Pete

Thanks for the update, Pete. Our prayers are with you, Preston and family.

I am praying tonight.  Sorry got this late.  God Bless you.  May Gods Grace and spirit cover you and your family.

Will lift you up in prayer Pete.  And pray for comfort for you and your family and continued reconciliation.

Praying.

1/28/11 PM – Preston is still very serious but doing a lot better. His kidney is beginning to function again. His dialysis had to be postponed until Saturday due to issues.  His ventilator is turned way down — they started out at max 100 setting and is now at 40 maintaining  full O2 staturation. And it appears he is over the flu. His lungs & pneumonia are still a problem but at least they’re aren’t getting worse.  A real blessing, he was coherant and able to understand and nod his head yes to questions. 

Your prayers are being answered, thank you all.

Praise the Lord! We will continue to pray…

We will continue to pray and trus in our Lord!

1/30/11 PM – Preston is doing much better. They are beginning the process to wean him off of the ventilator. Not sure how long that will take (3-5 days?). His creatine count for his kidney (which is the primary way of telling how the kidney is functioning) was up to 7 about 4 days ago. (Normal is .6 – 1.2  but transplant patients like me, 1.5-1.6 is normal). Well his has dropped all the way down to 2.0 which is Great !  That’s about all the “new” news on his condition.  Again, thank you all for your continued prayers. 

PS. A little trivia / nostalgia for you older folks, Preston was the original drummer in the rock group “Electric Prunes” back in 1967-68. For more information on him, see his webpage

http://home.earthlink.net/prestonr/

Pete, thanks for keeping us updated. I appreciated the nostagia note. I do remember that group and I think they had a lot of interest since they did the Kyrie Eleison song from Easy Rider. Back in the mid-sixties, though they also did “I Had too Much to Dream Last Night”; bow wave of the psychedlic movement.

Still praying for his continued recovery and for you and your family.

My brother’s daughter, Larissa, just posted this a couple of hours ago,  “”uc">my dads ventilator is out!!! but, he’s still all drugged up. begging me to stay with him because he thinks he’s in prison. :( so sad."

She texted me saying he (Preston) wanted to know how she knew all these people (I assume the nurses) and that he was scared. His arms were still tied to the bed so in his drugged state, he thinks he is in prison. Hopefully this will be short lived.

I am so happy he is breathing on his own. I would think he should be out of ICU soon. Absolutely incredible the turn around from 1 week ago. Praise be to God.

My brother is no longer on life support. He is breathing on his own, his transplanted kidney is restored to full working order and his pneumonia appears to be under control, if not healed. He should be moved out ICU tomorrow into a “normal” room. Seeing where he was at just 1 week ago, truly a miracle of our Lord, through the faithful prayers of his Saints. Thank you all.

Update 2/5/11 – Preston was down graded from ICU on Wednesday (2nd).    Now they are just working on physical therapy since his muscle tissue deteriorated so much that he couldn’t move his arms, sit up, or stand from laying dormant for 11 days.

As of  2/4 , he is a little better but strenght wise he still can’t stand for more than a few minutes, let alone walk. Even sitting in a chair his heart rate jumps up to over 200.

One step at a time! :) Praise the Lord for all He’s done already… It’s a miracle he’s still here considering the Drs & nurses didn’t think he was going to make it.

Preston is doing much better. He finally walked for the first time late yesterday (Sunday). The were going to send him to a rehab center tomorrow but he has some intestinal bug that they have to identify first.

He has been getting frustrated, confused and anwry because
he couldn’t understand why his body wouldn’t just get up and walk. Today a doctor explained that because he was on the ventilator for 8 days, his muscles have basically returned to that of a child (I assume lost of muscle memory?) and he must “re-learn” how use his muscles and how to walk.

An additional concern:  we are not sure where he is going to stay after rehab. The more time I spend talking to him, the less confident I feel in him being able to care for himself. His youngest daughter and son-in-law are in the beginning stages of looking for a home in Temecula but that will take some time. I may have to take him in for awhile. We don’t really have the room but will do whatever we need to.  Considering where he was 2 weeks ago, these are good things to have concerns over.  :-)

PS. Larissa’s husband is a Sgt in the Marines and he is beginning training for MARSOC (spec. ops). He just got back from a 7 month tour. So a lot of the load would be on her.

Urgent Prayer – My niece Larissa just texted me to inform me that Preston did not urinate all day so she took him to urgent care and his kidney is showing signs of rejecting again. His creatine level jumped from1.7 to 2.2 so she,  her husband Benjie and daughter are driving him back up here to Tarzana Hosp so he can see his regular “kidney” doctor who he has seen for the last 15 yrs.