Justin's Road to Recovery

Sorry to take a while to post, but here we go. Last week was Justin's MRI. It has shown progress and change. Infection is still there but shrinking, blood clot in the brain is gone! Blood clot in neck is shrinking and "rerouting" itself, but not gone. They did see something new in the left frontal lobe that they aren't sure what it is. That's a bummer, but it's just something they are going to watch. We saw and talked to the Infectious Disease & Physical Medicine doctors last week. Oh and also Neurology doc. Shout out to Primary's hospital! Everyone still continues to be amazing!  They are planning for now to stop IV antibiotics (maybe all antibiotics) and take out the PICC line on Monday. The fluid pocket in the brain could be related to the antibiotics. This will require another MRI 2 weeks after they stop the antibiotics to see what the brain looks like then. No one has said anything based on his twice a week blood work, so that's good. It has b...

Time is relative, fickle, fast, slow, deceptive, never ending, dragging on, too short, etc, however, it's actually unchanging. It was one month as of yesterday since Justin went to the ER for the 2nd time, and was finally diagnosed and given the intervention and treatment that saved his life. On Sunday night I was overwhelmed as I finally allowed myself to think about the alternative month we could have had, if God had not intervened to save him! 💖🙏    I can't believe it was a month ago. The hospitalization seemed like it lasted forever, and yet here we are in the weeks since, and life seems so normal. If you were to see Justin today, you wouldn't really know anything had happened. He's recovery has been incredible!! He is reffing as many soccer games as he can, and working out to build back up to actually playing. He is in school, auditing his classes and getting up to speed. His friends no longer have to come visit us during lunch break. And he can take Calc 3 in th...

 It is hard to believe Justin got out of the hospital over a week ago. To see him you would not really know what he's been through in the last 4 weeks. He continues to improve everyday and I'm anxious to see what the Speech Therapist thinks, in addition to the doctors that start seeing him 1 month after surgery on 9/19.  We are so grateful for his progress and improvement, and for his life. He has been working out, doing school work he didn't finish during the summer, refereeing, and preparing for "first day of school" tomorrow, yet to see what that actually looks like. But so grateful for his school counselor doing everything she can working with and for him and for the Education advocate at the hospital. 💖  His friends come over almost every lunch, and after school, and randomly during the day. He is planning on 3 homecomings, and will finally get to take Calc 3 in the Spring. Pretty sure it's the brain damage, because...  why?😉  Thank you to everyone reac...

 I won't be posting everyday as most of you can reach us by phone now, including reaching Justin. But we will post here as appropriate. All of us have enjoyed being HOME for this long weekend.  For Justin, he is not stuck in the hospital, but sleeping is his own bed or watching TV on the couch or laying in the basement or going for a walk or starting workouts on his road to recovery. His mood, health, energy, everything is continuing to improve! He is taking activity and visits in doses as his energy level allows, so be patient, he's getting there!  For Steve and I, not packing up, thinking about what to do while at the hospital or what we are forgetting, just being at home doing homeowner "things". We went to the RSL game Saturday night with friends, and saw friends and fireworks, and had a friends b-day party on Sunday. Justin got his new snowboard today, and will be starting Speech therapy next week.  Visiting DR tomorrow to check in and find out next steps for ho...

HOME!!!!! We are home!!!  It took all day to get everything squared away, doctors signing off, picking up meds, scheduling home health visits and pharmacy drop off, specialist follow-up appointments, Speech PT OT therapy sessions and at home instructions, etc and more and etc also again and keep going.  Thank you to friends cheering up Justin when we thought they might keep him after all. Thank you to friends for decorating his room & taking care of Koa. Thank you to the doctors who fought figured and finagled getting him out. Just a little extra follow-up steps this weekend at local doctor to monitor sodium and we'll see how he continues. He is SO happy to be home. We drove past the Capital, and past our former church building which he noticed was torn down. Now to watch a movie on the couch and sleep in his own bed. THANK YOU ALL for your support, prayers, food, blankets, flowers, calls, texts, comments, etc. We could never have done this without you all, and we'll need ...