#90

I spoke to Dr. Duke very briefly today, so my information may be a little sketchy. From what I gathered the skin graft on the left is great (actually I can see that myself as it is now uncovered) but the one in the larger middle has some issues. The bottem of it, it seems, will be lost to leaking, but the top is still ok at this point. He wishes for easy answers to this but in his words, this situation is" testing his ingenuity". He assures me that in this seventh month he will continue on-( I am sure in his entire life, he has NEVER been called a quitter). I ,therefore will follow along behind, praying for a new idea to form or a remake of something way down deep in his bag of tricks. I am reminded of a favorite bible verse----- "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33. Keep praying --this is just a bit of "trouble " but we're in good Hands. Love to all, Ruthie

#89

I spoke to Dr. Duke very briefly today, so my information may be a little sketchy. From what I gathered the skin graft on the left is great (actually I can see that myself as it is now uncovered) but the one in the larger middle has some issues. The bottem of it, it seems, will be lost to leaking, but the top is still ok at this point. He wishes for easy answers to this but in his words, this situation is" testing his ingenuity". He assures me that in this seventh month he will continue on-( I am sure in his entire life, he has NEVER been called a quitter). I ,therefore will follow along behind, praying for a new idea to form or a remake of something way down deep in his bag of tricks. I am reminded of a favorite bible verse----- "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33. Keep praying --this is just a bit of "trouble " but we're in good Hands. Love to all, Ruthie

Message From Ruthie

We are continuing to pray for the grafts to "take". Dr. Duke is out of town until this evening and will take Louie back to surgery tomorrow. This morning the wound vac (we are down to ONE )started beeping and giving us very unwelcome messages. It was reorganized and reprimanded by the charge nurse and is now doing okay. Leaking is so detrimental to a skin graft that the sound of that wound vac makes me a wreck. We did get a welcome dose of spiritual medicine yesterday. Father Ed Schoellmann came and said Mass for us in our room. Louie has been unable to attend Mass since January and Father Ed's very personal message of faith was just the boost we needed. Please continue to pray--we treasure that very special gift from each of you so much.

Love to all, Ruthie

#89 - Grafting Report

Dr. Duke came by to talk to mom after surgery. It appears at the left side (smaller graft) looks very good. The middle graft looks "okay" but not really good. The gastric juices are still a danger. Dr. Duke will take him back to surgery on Thursday to check it again. Please continue praying!