Though Jack is stable, he is still in ICU and is at a very critical phase - he is not out of the woods yet. Though everyone is feeling VERY positive about how he is responding. Part of allowing the body to heal from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) - the absolute biggest concern because our brains run our body! Plus the addition to the physical breaks that Jack received to his face (multiple areas including the jaw), his right eye, his right arm, right hand and fingers/thumb etc. there are a few things that can happen. With that said, here is todays update: Jack is running a high fever, some of this is normal process of TBI and/or it can be there could be an infection. He has multiple tubes into his body which can be passage ways for infection especially in a hospital because sick people are in hospitals. The very capable staff at OHSU is all over this and are looking at the various possibilities and managing it all. The other day the OHSU staff added support air back into his care vs. him breathing completely on his own as it took so much energy for Jack to breathe which took away from allowing his body to heal. So they provided support. Which means, he is breathing on his own but has air to make it a smoother process. They did a test this morning to see how he would do if they took all support air off and decided his body would still have to work to hard, especially with the introduction of the fever. Another side affect from healing from a brain injury is agitation/thrashing, this is happening now and therefore keeping visitors to only the immediate family to allow his body to rest is critical!! This is not a bad thing, but needs to be managed, its part of the awaking of the body to find out how his head injury has affected his abilities. This is a waiting game, this takes a long time! There are degrees of healing, two steps up and one step back. But the medical staff and the Fletchers are feeling very positive about Jacks progress. They will also keep the neck brace on for now. The MRI didnt provide enough detail to know if the neck could support itself currently or if there was ligament damage. To be safe, it will remain on until the staff is completely confident. On a great note to get the body healing, they will try and move him to a special chair to give him more of an upright position. Important to keep the lungs clear. Nobody wants to see pneumonia! Of course, Jack couldnt possibly not supply us with a daily uplift or a laugh..... his nurse in the middle of the night asked Jack for a thumbs up, since she was only truly looking for a response, Jack decided to supply her with a response of a certain finger :-)!! John was supplied with a quick wave of Jacks left hand this morning (no open left eye though) when he greeted him with a good morning. That should leave us all smiling for the day!!! Another shout out to Jacks friends who shaved their heads to support Jacks new doo. Now thats brotherhood and camaraderie! You young men rock!! Thanks for your continued support and prayers for the Fletcher family! They are reading your posts and it lifts them up!!
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 17:57:30 +0000