Hello everyone.

I had a nice lengthy description of Melisa's day when my laptop decided to reboot. I hate Windows Vista!

Anyway, it's 11:45 and I'm tired so I'll do the update from the ICU waiting room tomorrow.

Love you guys

A Better Day-this was the one I didn't get to finish last night

Today was a little bit better day. Melisa is still getting stronger. Her skin looks good and the nurses keep telling her how pretty she is. She always smiles at that.





Yesterday I asked the nurse to see if they could change her pain med from morphine to dilaudid. She had been taking dilaudid several weeks at home, in pill form, and it had not effected her psyche like morphine and other opiods. One of the doctors approved it along with giving her some anti psychosis drug.

graphic addition

Whoody Tooty! Man what a game yesterday. Luckily most of the ICU waiting room was MSU fans. We all needed something lift our spirits and we made the most of it. The MSU football program looks like it's gonna see a resurgence like the nineties. Maybe even better. I am sorry I missed church at FUMC this morning just to tell Greg Ducker how sorry I am.

Well, Melisa hasn't had much change over the past couple of days. Her arms are getting stronger. So much so that she woke up this morning and pulled every tube she had out. Janet, the nurse, wasn't too upset. The woman must be a saint because she barely blinked an eye. Melisa also ripped off her bandages and wound packing and no one that dresses wounds works weekends so Janet had to change Melisa's bandage and blankets every couple hours most of the day. I helped her at the 11:00 visitation and it was a mess. Not sure what the fluid coming out of her incision is but it looks like honey mustard and there is a lot of it. Luckily it doesn't have any odor.

Her breathing is getting stronger every day as well. The heart and respiratory rate are staying consistant. Because of the ventilator tube being in her mouth almost two weeks all the skin in her mouth and lips peeled off as well as all the skin on her cheeks. She was so weak, until today, that she couldn't reach up to her face so the nurses and I spent most of our time Saturday scrubbing skin off her. That has mostly cleared up now and she is back to her beautiful self. She's been wanting to get a dermabrassion(sp) anyway.

All that being said, Melisa is still very very sick and if recovery is a posibility it is going to take a long time. Her paradox is that her body is too weak to heal the wounds, she can't get any food until the wounds heal enough to process the food and her wounds aren't going to heal unless she can get nutrients to make her stronger. All this while her cancer is growing rapidly. I can't write any more right now. I know God is with me every step though.

I love you all.

Saturday-Kinda quiet day

Hi all! I am going to post a quick update on Mel for those of you that may check this daily. There is not a whole lot to say about today-Melissa slept most (if not all) of the day. Yesterday after Boo's last post they got Mel out of bed and she sat in a padded recliner-type chair for 20 minutes! That is an amazingly long time considering she has been laying in a bed for weeks now!!! However, this adventure did take a lot out of her and so today she has been resting a lot more than she has been the past few days. Still no feeding tube or anything by mouth as far as I know. Boo and Aidan were able to make it to Starkville late this afternoon so that Aidan could make it to a friend's birthday party but are headed back to Jackson soon after. One of us will update again soon!

-Kenley
(p.s. GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!)

Friday afternoon

Thank you all for your prayer yesterday. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. We got together at Kenley and Tyler's appartment and all got stuffed. Melisa had a great day herself. She had her first full day breathing by herself and didn't have a tube ten inches down her throat. Today she is becoming more aware of her environment and her needs. She still isn't having pain from surgery or cancer pain but she is becoming more uncomfortable from being in bed for three week. Her back is bothering her and she wants to get out of bed. Good news for her is they are beginning to sit her up in bed and the foot of the bed drops down so it is almost as if she is sitting up in a chair. They are going to try to move her to a chair tomorrow, possibly. No word on when she gets her feeding tube back or when she may get something by mouth but we are hopeful soon. Dr. Young said she will probably be moved to a private room Monday.

Sorry if this is cut and paste but I am trying to get this typed before the next visitation, which has just been announced. so good bye for now and I'll get more later today.

Ove you all and keep praying.

Thanksgiving Eve

It's the night before Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for. What a wonderfully beautiful day we had today. The sun was warm and bright with a cool fall breeze waving the falling brown leaves across the pale blue sky. Don't tell Melisa she missed it.

She had a glorious day without witness to our beautiful fall day. Getting that tube out of her mouth and throat was a good way to start her day and having Aidan come in her room and have open dialogue was the perfect way to end it. Both were beaming with joy as they stood holding each others hands while I read get well cards from Ms Cunetto's class(a lot of Picasso's in that class). That will do more to aid her healing exponentially more than any medicine.

Well, she should get a heck of a workout tomorrow with all the family coming in to visit.

I hope all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Remember to pray for Melisa at noon.

She can speak!!

This morning when we arrived for the 11-12 visit the nurses told us that there was a "hold" on her bed (meaning we could not go back and see her until they called the front desk and gave the ok). I was praying they were taking her off of the ventilator but was thinking they were probably just changing the dressing on her wound.
SURPRISE to me! Melisa is now off of the ventilator and finally able to speak to us!!! Although her voice is weak and very soft, she is finally strong enough to breath unassisted and finally able to TELL us what she needs or wants. Needless to say she is very excited about this herself!
Everything else is pretty much the same but Boo is going back to the 5pm visit so I am sure one of us will update again later tonight.
Thank you all again for the thoughts and prayers!

-Kenley