Sunday July 31, 2005

Sunday July 31, 2005 Zack smiled at me when I arrived this morning. Not a big grin but just as sweet. He holds his hand up in the air and watches as he moves his fingers. It reminds me of when he was a baby. Jim Whitworth (H.S. teacher at Christian Academy) comes by and we talk about the impact Zack has made on a lot of his friends and even people that he doesn’t know. Jim reminds me that we are told to preach the Word daily and if necessary use words. 9:00 AM they take a culture of his head wound since the lab didn’t have a record of one already taken. His head is bleeding a little again and I give Zack his golf glove to hold so he won’t be tempted to scratch it. As I watch the clock so I won’t be late for church I see Zack holding his glove up in the air and shaking it. My friend Donna came to sit with Zack while I went to church. She told me that some how he got his glove on his left hand by himself. She gave him a kiss on his forehead and asked him if he wanted to give her a kiss. She was holding his hand and he pulled her towards his face. He is very active in bed, pulling at everything, feet off the bed.
Dr. Gormerly comes by to tell me that the culture they took on his sputum was negative for MRSA, however there was a gram-negative infection of ecoli, but they are not concerned about it. We move Zack to his chair at 2:00 PM. He struggles to hold his head up and I have to keep pushing it back onto the headrest. He doesn’t like it and one time gets mad enough that he throws a washcloth across the room. He frowns and says “head hurt” in the midst of other mumbling. He stays in his chair for several hours.
Dr. Borhan came by with the news that Zack has a urinary track infection (from having a catheter in so long) so they have started him on another antibiotic. I’m sure this will bethe first of many little medical issues we will deal with here. Trey, Nick and Rick come to see him. He is holding his baseball and rolling it around in his fingers. At 6:30 he holds the ball up in the air and when Rick asks for it he gives it to him. He releases it into Rick’s hand. This is big! It is much easier to grasp something than to release it. He actually throws the ball about 12” to Trey. For the next two hours he plays ball with his friends. Dr. Borhan comes in to check the game out and is very impressed. Of course his friends are delighted. I really didn’t expect much today since he didn’t have any therapy, but as I learn to wait on God’s timing I receive unexpected blessing. I remember Kyle Idleman’s sermon on suffering at church today and the final advise to just hold on to God. I can’t imagine going through this without clinging to our savior. To be able to approach the throne of God and know that he feels our pain is a great comfort. We ask for continued prayers for healing. We ask for new ways to reach Zack in therapy. We ask that we will be satisfied with the little blessings that God decides to give us so that we can experience greater joy on days like today.