Update August 28-Sept 10th

Thursday August 31st, Jan went in for an operation to replace his bone flap--- the bone flap is the piece of skull that was taken out during his 2nd surgery when they removed part of his brain on the right side due to critically high cranium pressure. This piece of skull has been kept in the freezer all this time. The operation was pretty routine and went very well. His skull now has its normal round look to it.

The rehab unit has restricted Jan’s visitors to just Allene during the day and her father, Alan at night. This has been exhausting for the two, but has kept Jan’s agitation levels down. His agitation levels were high because it was becoming too hard for him when it came time for family members to leave. He was begging us to take him home and chasing us down the hallways etc. Then, the nursing staff would have a hard time settling him down. So, we have reluctantly agreed to stay away for a while which has been difficult.

The rehab staff has been talking about Jan possibly moving on to “Rehab Without Walls”, which would mean that he would be able to go home and staff would come into the home and give him his therapy sessions. This is a possibility for the future, but Jan still needs to meet certain requirements to qualify.

On Sept. 6th, a neurological nurse practitioner came in and talked to Jan for about an hour, which was very refreshing. She listened to all his stories and took time to hear all his complaints. She felt very good about Jan talking so much because she feels like it opens up new passageways in the brain. Jan received a weekly call from his missionary son, Chris and was thrilled to speak to him. Jan was very emotional in telling him how proud he was of him, and that it would be a great experience for him. He allowed Chris to talk quite a bit, and it was a very healing experience for both of them.

Jan’s therapies are going well, although he is confused with their repetitive questions. He can name every question they ask him in the correct order and he is quite dramatic. One morning, his nurse put down the wrong day on the whiteboard in his room and he called her on it and told them about it later in Speech Therapy.

His mind is set on going home and he has asked the sitter what the code to the door is and asked if it is changed each day. Jan has actually some how escaped the unit this week. He has called his son Jordan at home and has told him over and over that the thing he needed to understand is that he was to get his mom to bring him home. He keeps telling Allene that the Sabbath would be the perfect day for her to take him home because the kids would mostly be indoors, etc. He is certain that he can still drive and teach school.

Highlights
--Enjoyed a haircut from Chelsea
--Listened to the Doobie Brothers and Seals and Crofts
--Likes to show people how he can spin the ball on his finger
--Played Yatzeee with Angela and Hal
--Watched “Music and the Spoken Word” with Hal
--Watched home movies with Allene
--Helped Jordan with his math over the phone
--Shaved himself

Thank you all for your prayers. We pray that his brain will continue to clear, that he will have understanding and that the MIRACLE will continue.

Tosh, Jan & Lori

Hal, Jan & Mike

Hal, Jan & Lori

Update August 21st - 27th

Doctors removed splint and bandages off of Jan’s arm and put a hard cast on. Jan enjoyed being able to scratch his arm for a bit, but not happy when they put a hard cast back on! We are happy about the cast because now we won’t have to fight him with trying to unwrap it constantly. He was shown some pictures of his wood shop at home and he pointed to some of the tools and said, “Now that’s what I need to take this cast off!”

Jan’s left ear infection has cleared up and the hole in his eardrum has healed. There is still a little fluid still in the ear, so they will wait awhile before determining any hearing loss at this time. He keeps telling us that his left ear and left eye are not working very well. The neck brace is still on……..that is when Jan will keep it on---he’s getting better about it though.

Jan is recognizing family members and close friends and shows quite a bit of emotion at times when we go to spend time with him. He’ll say, “I haven’t seen you for weeks” and “ I just want to enjoy my kids” etc… There have been some tender moments. Jan is very polite and even when he is begging people to help him take his cast off he says, “Please!” He also says, “Thank-you” and “Sure do appreciate ya.”

Jan is starting to realize that school has started and that he is supposed to be teaching etc.. , but that he is in ” no condition right now to teach PE and Math!” He has also mentioned that he is missing High Council meetings.

Jan & Hal at Therapy

Stationary Bike - Therapy

Highlights of the Week

--Accidentally hit a PT aide with a basketball when he threw it to her and she wasn’t looking---Jan busted up laughing and was all smiles!! Allene was so thrilled because we hadn’t seen him laugh or smile yet!
--Laughed with his brother Hal when it started to rain on them during their walk outside.
--Laughed with his brother Hal during a PT session when Jan started to pass the basketball behind his back and between his legs to Hal who was standing on a moving beam!
--Ate at Café Rio with his family.
--Called his brother Kim on his birthday and sang “Happy Birthday” to him.
--Sang the hymns at church.
--Played dominoes (Chicken Foot) with Tosh, Mike and Lori….and beat them.
--Played “Hearts” with his mother, Angela, Jordan and Kelsey….and beat them.
--Joked around with Lori and Mike 3 or 4 times over various things---great to see him smile and get his sense of humor back that we have all missed since his injury.

Therapy Excercises

Jan’s therapy this week has consisted of:
-- 3-digit addition and subtraction, which he does all in his head and very quickly.
-- Word associations and problem solving pictures
-- Counting change and matching cards
-- Ordering off of a Chili’s restaurant menu
-- Computer games, like Bejeweled
-- Shooting hoops and passing the basketball back and forth (left-handed)
-- Catching balls while standing on moving beam (balance)
-- Walks outside all the way around the outside of the hospital
-- Stationery bike
-- Card games---he ends up winning most of the time.

Jan walking with nurses

Jan outside with nurse

Rehab & Therapy

On Monday, August 14th - Jan was moved from the Intermediate Surgical Unit on the 6th floor to REHAB on the 4th floor. This was a big step and one that we have looked forward to.

This week Jan has done away with his catheter and feeding tube!! Jan can pretty much be held responsible for the removal of both of them. After the feeding tube was removed, they took him in for a swallow test that is done by x-ray. They fed him different kinds of food and watched to make sure that he could swallow it and that it was going down to his stomach. HE PASSED!! Now we just need to make sure that he eats enough and gets enough calories. His appetite is improving each day, he hasn’t eaten for a month so it will take some time.

Jan has 4-5 therapy sessions a day. Some Therapy Examples: Going on walks, climbing stairs, riding the stationary bike, hitting balloons and balls back to the therapist, getting himself dressed, and recognizing colors, numbers, and coins, etc…

There are 8 stages/levels of recovery and Jan is in stage 4 which is called the Confused, Agitated stage. Now that his catheter and feeding tube are out, he has become very focused on getting the cast off of his arm, which isn’t going to happen any time soon! He gets very frustrated and tells us so. He keeps saying that he can’t understand why we are not helping him remove the cast (splint and ace bandage). We are hoping that the doc will put on a hard cast soon because Jan keeps unwrapping it and trying to rip off the bandages etc..,which is totally normal and expected in this stage of recovery. We are told that we need to try to keep him calm and relaxed. We try to divert his attention to anything other than his arm, but it doesn’t last very long.

The last few days, Jan has also started to take his neck brace off. We are not quite sure of the extent of his neck injuries, but we are hoping that they will look into it more extensively the beginning of next week. Thank you all for your support and prayers. We love you all!!

Allene & Jan in Rehab Room

Wrist Surgery & Progress

Jan went in for surgery on his right wrist on Monday, August 7th. Surgery lasted 4 hours and they had to take bone out of his right hip to reconstruct the wrist. He doesn’t like the huge cast that goes all the way up his arm and keeps saying, “Can we do something about this?”

Jan has started to respond to verbal commands and is expected to be transferred to the Rehab Unit next week where he will spend more time with physical, speech and occupational therapy. This is a huge step and we are looking forward to seeing him progress at a faster pace.

He keeps pulling out his feeding tube despite the efforts of his family members and “sitters” that are with him 24/7. The doctors have told us that if he does it again, they will have to insert it into his stomach instead of the nose, which will be yet another surgery! We are hoping that he will respond to the swallow tests that are given to him daily so that he can get it removed for good. He has been taken off the oxygen totally now and has just the feeding tube and catheter.

We have recently found out that there is damage to Jan’s left ear, which now explains why he says, “What!” so often. He has a hole in his eardrum and it is infected and is now being treated. We are hoping that there is not any nerve damage or there may be some hearing loss. We won’t know for sure for some time---they are concentrating on clearing up the ear infection for now.

Jan is able to recognize family members and say their names. He is also using complex sentences at times, which is encouraging. He had his best physical therapy session Sunday night (13th) which consisted of sitting up, kicking the therapist’s hand 10 times with each leg, standing up with help and marching in place—4 steps! These sessions wear him out! It will take awhile for him to build up his strength again, but he is a fighter!

Jan is a living miracle---we have all witnessed it! We are hoping the miracle continues through his rehab and recovery! We appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers! We love you all!!

Jan with Siblings & Mother

Jan, Allene, Chris, Tosh, Jordan & Kelsey

Families are Forever

On Wednesday, August 1st, they took Jan’s ventilator tube out and he was able to breath on his own—another huge step! Allene hung up a picture of their family with the words OUR FAMILY IS FOREVER on it. The first words he spoke were “Family . . . Forever” and then a little later, “Get me outta here”. The next day he was moved to the Intermediate Surgical Unit with a nurse assistant they call a “sitter” with him 24/7. He has had therapists—a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist evaluating him daily. With great help from a large physical therapist he was able to sit and also stand for a few moments. His vocabulary is improving each day. The more people around seems to agitate him but he appears calm and relaxed when Hal (brother) and Allene are with him. The doctors are quite pleased. Adjectives like “remarkable, wonderful, great, unbelievable” are coming from their pleased and amazed mouths. As of today, August 7, 2006 he had a little, but aware, conversation with Hal. His feeding tube is still in until he can show them that he can swallow. He wouldn’t respond to the nurses so Allene tried; and he half heartedly put the stick in his mouth; we were thrilled. The next step is to move to Rehab and they are hopeful that that will happen within the week. The doctors keep reminding us that this will be a slow and long, healing process but we see DAILY improvement. It may be slight but every day is exciting. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and fasting—he is a living miracle with unbelievable progress. We attribute it to everyone’s thoughts and prayers and we are so very grateful! Thank you so much!

Feeling of Hope

It has been 9 days since Jan has awakened and he makes slow but deliberate progress each day. First his left arm started moving, then his right arm (with the broken wrist), then he started moving his shoulders, then one day his left leg moved and eventually his right leg showed movement—all this progress happened within 5 days. The doctors were all waiting for him to follow commands. It was frustrating because the doctors left before he could perform. It took him a while to get the message from his brain to his area needing to respond.

2nd Surgery

On Saturday the 23rd of July, the pressure on his brain became so severe that the surgeon recommended a second surgery, this time he made an incision on the right side of Jan’s head and cut a section of the bone out and removed some of the right lobe of the brain. It is believed that this part of the brain is not critical for key functions and so this is where the surgeon removes brain tissue to relieve pressure when there are no other options. The surgeons advised us that Jan would die without this surgery; and that they had about one hour to accomplish and so timing was critical. Jan was given a blessing by his 2 brothers and father-in-law and taken to surgery. The brain, like other parts of the body, swells upon injury. The challenge of the brain is that it is encased in our skull and so there is a very limited amount of swelling that can occur, if the pressure and swelling become too great, the brain is damaged and actually has no where to go but to squeeze the brain stem and that is fatal as it destroys the critical body functions. The ICU professionals worked intensely to keep Jan’s cranium pressure in the acceptable range after the surgery, it is a difficult battle and many techniques were utilized. Immediately after the surgery his cranium pressure was very low, but it began to climb again to dangerous levels, by that evening, the nurse advised that his children be assembled in case he did not survive the night. His wife and family visited him and emotions and tender feelings were expressed. All we could do was pray and have faith that the Lord would preserve him. Miraculously, he survived that evening and by Friday the next week (July 28th) he woke up while Julie and Hal were attending him. All the family was assembled by mid-morning and we were granted permission to all come in and sing some hymns to Jan. He became very awake and tears flowed down his face. He seemed to be quite aware at that moment what was taking place. We all shed a few tears and felt the great love that we all have for Jan and his family and one another. At that moment, his cranium pressures declined to an acceptable level and he has been healed (he will live) from this moment on. The male nurse that was attending him made this remark to the night shift nurse at the change: “I am not a religious man, but ever since they have sung to Jan, his levels have been near normal”. Here is a convincing testimony from a credible outside witness of the great healing power that can come from family love and support and the power over life of the Almighty. We are all witnesses.

The Accident

Jan sustained a severe head and brain injury on Monday July 17, 2006 while assisting his neighbor, close friend and Bishop repair his roof. Jan is a skilled worker and talented athlete, so the fall is a bit of a surprise to most of us. Accidents can happen to all of us, this was a serious one as he fell about 15 feet on cement, his head taking the brunt of the fall. He suffered a broken wrist (shattered in several places and must be reconstructed), several ribs were cracked, the left side of his face sustained some fractures, a small bone on the side of his lower neck was cracked and he has several bone chips in his back.

Jan was taken to Timpanogos Hospital and then life-flighted to LDS Hospital where he was taken to the Shock/Trauma unit for immediate surgery. The neurological surgeon made a large incision on the left side of Jan’s cranium and removed a blood clot and removed the fluid that had built up on the brain from his injury. It was a 2 hour surgery and family gathered to support. Dr. Reishman, one of the leading surgeons in the West, preformed the surgery and reported to the family that Jan has suffered a very, very, very severe head injury and that he may not live. He was placed in the Level 1 Shock/Trauma in a self induced coma and was there for 12 days on the brink of death.