December 5 - 10:30pm UPDATE

Sorry for the quicky earlier, but I'd been waiting all day for Ryan to wake up and of course he decided to when I finally went to get lunch at 4pm.

When we arrived at the hospital this morning his nurse told us the doctor wanted her to slowly ween him off the medication keeping him sedated. We knew it would take a while, but it took all day - which actually is not a bad thing. She said Ryan's movements and responses are good and she doesn't see any of the posturing type moves people with brain damage might show. Then late this afternoon, Dr Beemer came in and told me to go home and get a good nights sleep. He said Ryan's CT Scan showed less swelling and things were looking good. I said "thank you for saving my son" and he said "you're welcome." Then I asked if I could give him and hug and he said sure. Sounds dumb, but it was the only way I could thank him for what he's done for us!

Well, Ryan was still sleepy around dinner time and we had some friends arrive, so we went out to the waiting room and visited and I made some much needed phone calls. Later when we went back to Ryan's room, his nurse said he'd awakened fully, sat straight up in bed and leaned forward and tried to pull the ventilator tube out of his throat again. (his wrists are tied down so he can't reach the tubes when lying down.) She talked with the doctor and asked if he wanted Ryan that alert, and of course he didn't, so they put him back on the "sleep medication". We're back to watching him sleep and watching the numbers. His ICP numbers (InnerCranialPressure)have been excellent all day today - between 8 and 14. His blood pressure has been pretty good too. The thing they're concerned about is his temperature. It's been over 100 and up to 102 and they want to get it down below 100. They say it's not good for brain injured patients to run a fever - it just cooks their brain so they've kept his room like a meat locker and have been putting ice packs behind his neck and under his arms to cool him down.

Please pray for a day with temps under 100 and continued healing and more lessening of swelling. Your prayers are working. We just can't believe the love and support posted to this site and messages on our cell phones and everything else that has been done for us. We are completely overwhelmed. Thank you, thank you. We'll have a big party when Ryan is recovered and can come home.

Our love and thanks to you all,
Debi and Eric and
Lauren and Cameron
and of course RYAN