Hi everyone! It has been about 1 month since I have updated on my dad, Mike. This past month has been pretty slow with no crazy updates until recently. We started off steady with daily visits to see Mike and give him his PICC line antibiotic, to clean his wounds, and sometimes to clean/change his colostomy bag. After about 2 weeks of this routine, the nurse came and was able to remove his PICC line! This was exciting for Mike because it was one less tube coming out of him. After his PICC line was out, he continued his medications orally and continued to see his doctors weekly. We had a slight hiccup with a leak in his nephrostomy tube. Mike went in to his Urologist and they were able to see that the tube had cracked and they replaced it. Well, this led to a bad UTI. At the same time, he ended up getting a bad virus. These two things combined made his heart rate increase and he had a high fever of 103. They cultured his urine and put him on another antibiotic and its helped a lot. his infection is doing better and his heart rate is finally in the normal range again. 

Fast forward about 2 weeks and he had another check up with the Urologist. This time it was to see if the severed ureter tube had healed... Mike was given a pain medication and they injected dye into his nephrostomy tube. During this procedure, my dad prayed. He said, I know there are a lot of people that need Your help and that are worse than me, but please heal my ureter tube and give me a miracle. Mike said, as he prayed this prayer, he heard one of the doctors say "well that looks good". Sure enough... Mike's tube is almost completely healed! All of his other doctors said there was no way that a severed tube would heal on its own. But it did. It is truly a miracle from God. The test showed a tiny leak at high urine pressure but no leak at normal urine pressure. So... They removed his nephrostomy tube from his back! Another tube out! He called me almost in tears. He was so excited. With this tube gone and ureter almost healed he gets to avoid another surgery! The Urologist left the stent in there just to be safe. This weekend Mike got to shower for the first time since March 10th! Mike was so excited that he went and let my dog (Booger) out, saw his grandkitties for the first time in 2 months, went to walmart, and mowed his lawn all by himself. He finally is starting to feel like a normal person again. 

Prior to this last urologist appointment, Tricia had reached out to Vanderbilt Urology on her own. Mike's original surgeon did not. They contacted Mike and got an appointment scheduled for him to see the head Urologist of the department. Mike mentioned that he would also like to see a gastro. doctor and Vanderbilt Urology offered to call and get Mike set up with that office as well. Sure enough (again), they got Mike an appointment with the head of the Gastro-Trauma department at Vanderbilt! We will be traveling this summer up to Nashville for these appointments. These will be in June and July. 

After a long road of ups and downs (felt like mostly downs)... Things are looking up for my dad. We are so incredibly grateful and still pray everyday for my dad to be fully healed. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We love you all more than words can describe. THANK YOU!