Remember My Brother
 

I know this has nothing to do with efficiency, but I needed to post it somewhere on the forum to get him the prayers he needs. Here's a link to the story.

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread....938#post159938

Gotta log in to view.

Sorry I didn't realize you'd have to log in, I don't know much about computers, but I think I have figured out how to copy and paste it here. I'll give it a try.

Ah ha, it worked!!

Man, that's really tragic. I hope your brother makes a full recovery. It sounds like he's got a long rough road ahead, but he's survived, and is recovering.

Ford Man -

I'm glad you were there to help keep him calm. It makes a huge difference when he knows he's not alone. We'll keep him in our prayers.

CarloSW2

prayers inbound for you strength and mercy for your family.

I'm not into praying, but I sure hope he'll recover.
Strength !

Thanks to everyone. I'm getting ready to go back to the hospital to see him and will update later tonight.

Latest update.

We just got back from the hospital about an hour ago, he still looks about the same, but my niece (his daughter) said she ask him to squeeze her hand last night and he did and the nurses said he was still responding to them and their commands. They were able to put in a feeding tube and do the MRI on his neck this afternoon, but of course we don't know the results of it yet, we're hoping to know something tomorrow. Yesterday the doctors said the ventilator was doing most of his breathing for him, but today he was doing the largerst percent of the breathing on his own, so God is hearing the prayers and answering, so keep it up.

My niece had pictures of the car on her cell phone that her uncle sent her. It appears that the cow rolled up onto the hood then onto the top mashing the top down and possibly tearing the roof part of the way off on the drivers side and is probably what had hit his head/face.

Don't worry mate, as long as he survived te crash, hospital drugs and you visiting him will get him through,i know from experience....

so you better start plnning his welcome home party in advance otherwise you will be rushing it :)

My prayers are with your brother and family. Wish him a speedy recovery.

Damn roaming cows are a huge problem here in Utah. The farmers think they own the roads and the pastures.

Also, please remember my mom, she's having a pretty tough time with this since my dad just passed away about 10 months ago after them having been married almost 60 years. She went to the hospital with me this afternoon and made the comment that it's too soon for another tragedy in the family.

Great News!!! My sister in law called my mom from the hospital this morning after the Dr. was in to see my brother, then mom called me to give me an update. She told my mom that my brother tried to talk to them this morning, saying they could understand part of what he was saying and not understand part of it, but I'm sure his speach would be slurred from all the swelling, broken bones, possible inner mouth injuries, and medications, but the good thing is that he's talking and seems to know everything. They said he had ask if he was at home. I'm not sure whether he meant was he at home when the accident happened or whether he was asking if he was at home now. She said the Dr. didn't say anything about the MRI they done on his neck, but apparently everything was OK, because my sister in law said they had removed the neck brace. He hasn't opened his eyes, but I'm pretty sure he can't, because of the swelling in his face, my guess is that his head is approximatley 1 1/2 times it's normal size with broken bones, cuts, abraisions, and bruising. Everyone keep praying and hopefully this will be a speedy and full recovery.

More good news came in this morning when my sister in law called my mom. My brother is out of the most critical portion of the trauma unit and in a private room within the trauma unit. We are going back to the hospital tonight and I'll update either later tonight or tomorrow. Keep praying it's definitely working,

We just returned from the hospital about an hour ago and everything seems to be coming along much better that we were expecting. I was able to communicate with Terry tonight and he's able to open his left eye. He had a pretty bad cut that had to be sewn up at his right eye so it's probably going to take some healing before he'll be able to open it. He's not able to speak much, but he's writing us notes. Even in the condition he's in, first he thanked me for coming to see him and bringing my mom, since she doesn't drive. The next thing he said is "how is mom"? I assured him she was doing much better now that he was able to communicate with us and that she knew he was doing so much better. I asked him tonight if he remembered us being there Monday, and just as I suspected Monday he was aware we were there and remembered it. They were saying earlier today they were going to do surgery on his face Friday, but before we left tonight they had updated it to tomorrow saying he was strong enough to go through it, so mom and I are planning to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to see him before they start the surgery and give him support during the surgery. Right after the accident they were saying he'd be facing multiple surgeries on his face, now the Dr.'s are saying this may be the only surgery he will need so the news just keeps getting better and better. They are estimating the surgery will be somewhere between 5 and 10 hours long (hopefully that will be good news too and only take 2-3 hours), so he'll have a long rough day to go through tomorrow, but hopefully after tomorrow he will be at a point where he can really get started with the healing process. Apparently he remembers everything leading up to the accident, because my sister in law said today one of his notes said "cow?". She said she just told him not to worry about the cow that it was gone now. I don't know whether he was asking if he hit the cow, what happened to the cow, or if he tried to avoid it and was trying to figure out if that's what caused the wreck.

I've talked to several other people who have family in the trauma unit and I'm sure they would all appreciate prayers for their family member and family also. I talked to one lady there tonight who's son in law has been there for 11 days I think she said and he hasn't come to yet. He's a law enforcement officer and an 18 wheeler turned over on top of the car he was in. She said they were flying him by helicopter to Atlanta tomorrow to have him checked out by brain surgeon there to try to find out what's going on with him. One lady who's dad is in the trauma unit surprised everyone tonight by bringing food into the waiting room and placing it on a cart for anyone who wanted something to eat. When we left I gave her $10. and told her if she decided to do this again to use it to help pay for the food and if she didn't just use the money for herself, either way is fine, because she probably brought in close to $100. worth of food tonight to help others. It's really nice to see someone in this type situation trying to do things to help comfort others in the same situation. When we first got there at about 5:00 PM, I heard her say her dad was running a temperature of 107, but when visiting hours rolled around at 8:30 and she went in to see her dad she came out very excited, so I knew she had got some good news. Her dad's temperature was back to normal. Maybe this was God's way of rewarding her for her good deed!

Please keep the prayers coming!!, not only for Terry, but for all the victims and their families.

Honestly there is no data that suggest prayer helps, in fact in some cases it seems to be detrimental:
Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory P... [Am Heart J. 2006] - PubMed result

I'm extremely glad to hear you brother is getting better, seriously.

My sacrificial chicken must have done the trick, I really should have used one before the incident though. kidding (don't hate me) ;)

Terry went into surgery today at about 1:15 PM today and was there until about 7:45 PM, so about 6 1/2 hours. I didn't see the surgeon, but my sister in law said he didn't share much information, just said everything went well then left. We're hoping this is the only surgery he has to go through and that now he can get well on his way to full recovery. Thanks for all the prayers and for keeping our family in mind and most of all keep praying!!

I haven't had the chance to update lately, because we have been away from home either at the hospital or at my mom's house since Friday afternoon. Yesterday my brother started communicating with us more again after having a couple days to start recovering from his surgery. They took him off the ventilator last night and was able to leave it off part of the night, but had to put it back on him sometime during the night. I think that's one of their main goals right now to get him so he can do all his breathing on his own. Very little if any of the swelling has gone down, but he is looking much better. I don't know what they are giving him for pain, but apparently it's doing a pretty good job, he said yesterday his pain level was a 2 on a 1-10 scale. Everyone just keep praying and have faith, everything will work out fine.

Was that necessary? If you don't believe in God, then keep it to yourself. This man has a brother that was in a serious accident. Give him the decency to have hope that God is up there helping his brother out.

I'll be praying for ya, OP!

Prayer may not be beneficial if you don't have faith in God and that he's going to do the healing or whatever you're asking for, and no every prayer doesn't get answered in the way we would sometimes like to see it answered, because it's simply not the will of God, but I do believe the more prayers that are offered the better the chance of God granting the request.

Yah, it is about time these practices were questioned. It is especially interesting that praying seems to have the opposite effect on the faithful, I think it is important to understand what is really going on in this and any situation.

I never said I didn't. I was merely challenging the statement "It's working" with an actual study done on the subject. This isn't the wwjd forum so get over yourself.

Yes, and I would add Duh. However it is not necessarily "decent" to use a misfortune to proselytize or spread potential misinformation.

How is it remotely decent to tell people of differing opinion to stay quiet? People of faith do not corner the market on hope however. There is plenty to be hopeful for, the guy is breathing on his own for extended periods, he is well attended, he has made it this far, seems to have his faculties. I'm very optimistic about his chances.

Ford Man, lots of folks have been close to people in similar situations, you are not alone. Please don't let my quirks interfere with any updates you wish to post, I would be grateful to hear how things are going, and give your brother some "no strings attached" optimism for me :)

We just returned from the hospital about a 1/2 hour ago. This morning he was running a fever of 103.5, but the fever has broke and all is well there. It's my understanding that they took him back off the ventilator this morning and he's been able to breath fully on his own today. I ask him this afternoon if he was feeling any better and he responded no by shaking his head. I think the swelling is starting to go down a little bit. Please continue the prayers.

Someone that saw the cow told my sister in law that it probably weighed between 1200-1400 pounds and a friend of mine that saw it estimated 1000 pounds. Regardless of weight it was a huge animal.

I haven't updated the condition of my brother lately, partly because I've been sick for the last few days and wasn't going to go see him and possibly make him sick. I did go see him this afternoon which was the first time I'd seen him since last Saturday. When I went in they had him up sitting in a chair in his room, he said he'd been sitting up for about 3 hours and that this was the first day since his accident that he had felt good all day. He looked much better than he did a week ago, with nearly all the swelling on the left side of his face gone. He's now able to talk to us instead of having to write notes, he's able to fully open his left eye, partially open his right eye and they started feeding him soft foods and liquids today. If this isn't enough good news tomorrow he goes to rehab. He doesn't know yet how long he'll be in rehab, but they are saying probably not very long. He's hoping for a week and that might be about right. I think they are just going to have him in rehab to help him regain his strength from the accident and just lying around for the past 2 weeks.

Good news !

This isn't a "question OP's faith" forum either. Anyway, obviously you are a troll. So go ahead a debate with yourself.I'm glad to see God moving with the power of prayers with your brother, I'll keep him in mind when I pray.

Ford Man - really glad to hear your brother's pulling through.

---

Aaaannnd...

Note to self: add "religion" to "politics" under "things not to discuss on EcoModder".

With due respect, that goes for both/all sides. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG (Post 235580) --- Aaaannnd... Note to self: add "religion" to "politics" under "things not to discuss on EcoModder".

This.

Arguing back and forth about the issue in this thread was probably the most disrespectful thing of all.
/rant

Ford Man - clearly, w can equate your brother to the 514k mile Escort... He just ain't ready to give up. Wish him well for me, please.

My sister in law called my mom last night after they got Terry into the rehab center and told her they were talking like he might be there 3-4 weeks. She said Terry told them he didn't think he could stand more than another week. I think he's getting tired of laying around doing nothing, because several days ago he told his wife he was ready to get busy doing something.

That kind of attitude can work both ways...often, a person knows when he's "ready"... And often, he does not. Best to watch his progress and judge from there. Extra help (the right kind) can't hurt, eh?

I'm sure they will keep him there and he will be willing to stay as long as needed. I think he just wants to get back home more than anything. Since he's in rehab now, his granddaughter who he thinks the world of will be able to come see him, I think this will help him considerably.

The best news yet came today. Tomorrow he gets to go home. Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers, and also keep remembering him in prayer, he still has a long ways to go. I'll continue to keep everyone posted as he passes other milestones along the way.

Good news indeed !

Terry went back to the eye Dr. and the surgeon that did his surgery today. Both gave him a good report. I think the surgeon wants to see him again in about 6 weeks. He also went in and worked about 3 or 4 hours last Friday, which I think made him pretty tired, but otherwise didn't bother him.

Still not time for his 6 week follow-up visit with the doctors, but everything seems to be going well. I think his next appointment is July, 5th Last time I saw him was about a week and half ago. At that time I'd say 80%+ of the swelling was gone. He's back at work full time, but not carrying quite as large a load as he was before his accident and still tires out easily. He's also driving again and bought a Ford Fusion from one of the rental companies with just over 30K miles on it a few weeks ago.

Wonderful. It's amazing how resilient the human body is.