Derek Update

From facebook:
Derek is doing great today!
Roger says he is 100% better than he was yesterday.
He is able to move his toes and feet and his arm movements are becoming very well controlled. He was able to put his glasses on himself today, which he could not do yesterday.
His verbal skills are much better today, although his throat is still very sore and it makes talking a bit painful. His voice is labored, but again much louder and more pronounced now.
Derek can eat for himself. He even had a bean burro today.
Yesterday he was alone and needed to go to the bathroom and attempted to get off his bed and walk. This did not turn out so well. He fell, hit his shoulder and to top it all off spilled his pudding. The pudding made a mess on the floor and he couldn't quite get it all cleaned up before the nurse caught him.
He was also very disappointed, because during his time on the floor, he attempted a push-up and couldn't do it.
His pneumonia is clearing up, and overall everything is improving in great strides.

Thank you all for your prayers and your support. This has and will be a tough time for Derek and his family, but your efforts are greatly appreciated.


Derek got to go on a wheelchair ride today. I'm sure it was nice to get out of his room. We had him try pushing himself with his feet and his arms. His right side is still a little stronger then the left. He also walked a short ways with help, but his legs are still really weak to go very far. It's amazing how much he improves every hour! His goal is to be out of there by Tuesday, but he'll need to stay in the hospital a little longer then that. He starts physical therapy tomorrow morning which should help him a lot. He is still in the ICU because they don't have a bed for him yet, but hopefully soon he can move out of there. Last night there was a Code Blue in the ICU when our whole family was there, so we saw all the nurses rush into someones room. Derek asked his nurse later if that lady was okay. The nurse said the lady's heart stopped beating so they had to shock her and it started beating again. Derek said he felt like he was in a mortuary, and he hated mortuaries. So it will be really good for him to get out of there. It will be so nice for him to come home. With the way he's been improving already, it wouldn't be surprising if he could come home this weekend.

Derek concentrating on wheeling himself


The whole family


He got to go outside for the first time in a few days


Derek saying, "Stay Sweet"

Derek's Awake!!!

Copied from Nelson's facebook page:

Friday Night:
Derek just woke up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is conscious and is able to communicate by nodding and shaking his head.
His family has just gathered and are looking for a doctor to authorize the removal of his breathing tube.
I told you the prayers were working.

Saturday Morning:
Derek pulled his breathing tube out himself, along with most other things attached to him. He is breathing well. He is having some trouble talking, which seems to be because his throat is sore from the tubes. His voice is low and labored.
Derek can remember the dive and not feeling good when he came out of the water. He has been asking lots of questions about what happened.
Roger asked Derek if he felt he could walk and Derek replied that he is good to go and wants to leave the hospital.
The reality is that he is still having difficulty controlling movements particularly in his legs. He can wiggle his toes, but with some difficulty.
The neurologist visited him briefly this morning and basically said that he looks good and left.
Overall this is great news. Derek can now communicate and that will make everything much easier.


Derek woke up last night! We had been debating who was going to go to the hospital after dinner and decided no one would go, that we would just let him sleep and all go wake him up in the morning together. At about 10:20 Derek's nurse called and said Derek was awake. So we all rushed into the car and drove to the hospital. I have never seen my whole family move so fast. We got to the room and Derek was excited to see us. He answered yes and no questions and gave us two thumbs up. In the morning the nurse called again and said Derek wanted to talk to his dad. So my parents rushed to the hospital with my brother Chad and the rest of us came later. He can barely talk because his throat is hurting him, but he was cracking us up. He was mad at his nurse Chip because he wouldn't get him a fan fast enough. He told us he hated Chocolate Chip. He told me he was in Kayenta sleeping in our guest room and was really thirsty, so that's why he pulled out his breathing tube. He's still his same self always trying to make people laugh. We are all so excited that he is doing better. And hopefully only keeps getting better.

Some good news...

I'm glad my uncle has been updating. He can say it a lot better and easier then I can!

The neurologist has gone over the MRI with Roger and Babette. He showed them the damage to that brain that was caused by oxygen deprivation. There is damage on both sides of the brain. The damage is primarily in the part of the brain that controls leg movement. We have noticed his legs move much less than his arms.
How about some good news.
The neurologists says that the MRI shows much less damage than he expected. The doctor is very optimistic that Derek will have a good recovery, but that it may take a while. He expects Derek to begin to regain consciousness within the next 2 to 7 days!!!
He does expect that at that point Derek will still need a lot of help. Derek will probably still need to have some form of feeding tube in place, as he is not expected to be able to eat normally right away.
Derek will have his last hyperbaric treatment tomorrow, Sept. 25th, at Noon. After the treatment they will remove the breathing tube and allow Derek to breathe on his own. He is expected to be able to breathe without assistance at that point. They have already reduced his oxygen levels from 100% to 35% and Derek's oxygen saturation levels are staying in the 91% region. (it is not felt that Derek ever had a time when he was not able to breathe on his own, although it was very labored on the boat ride back to the marina.)
Now back to some bad news.
Even though many public officials are trying to tell us we need to get a good health care system like Cuba and Mexico, Derek seems to be suffering some ill effects of his time spent in a Mexican Hospital. The doctors say he has some type of infection and they believe that he has contracted a mersa infection in Mexico. If the cultures taken prove them right, they have a good solution for it, but it will require 2 weeks of IV treatments. Derek has had a fever at least since he arrived in the US, but seems to be getting it under control somewhat at this point.

Keep up the prayers, it's working.

Update on Derek

Last night Roger and Babette worked with Derek to see if he would respond to them. Derek did respond to a verbal command and squeezed Roger's hand with his right hand, but did not do the same with his left. When asked to open his eyes Derek moved his head, but did not open his eyes.
There was an MRI done yesterday as well, but the neurologist has not been available to discuss it thoroughly. We have been told that the MRI does show that there is "some" damage to the brain caused by oxygen deprivation.
Derek is currently just finishing up his 4th hyperbaric treatment (1 in Mexico and 3 in Tucson) and is scheduled for his final treatment tomorrow.
Outwardly there is no real change with Derek today. He is still very medicated to keep him from moving to much during hyperbaric treatments or removing his breathing tube etc.
Derek is still on a ventilator, but can breath fine on his own. This again is a precautionary measure to make sure he is getting what he needs during the hyperbaric treatments.
Thanks again to all of you for your support and prayers, and don't stop now. It looks like we may be in for the long haul on this one.


Here is a link to my uncle's facebook page, where he has info on Derek.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=100000235837182


(You'll have to copy and paste it because I don't know to insert a link where you can just click on it and it will go. Sorry!)

Just because...

I miss Derek and I'm worried about him. I'll copy and paste what my uncle Nelson wrote about him on facebook:

Derek was scuba diving in Guaymas, Mexico and experienced some kind of problem. He surfaced with his dad and told Roger that he wasn't feeling well. Roger told him to get in the boat.
Derek swam to the boat was evidently ...a little disoriented as he didn't swim to the ladder. Roger told him again to get in the boat, and Derek said he can't and that he couldn't feel his arms.
Roger went to help him get into the boat and when trying to help him get his gear off, Roger noticed that his arms were limp and Derek could not move them. Roger couldn't put him in the boat without Derek helping.
Within about 3-4 minutes of surfacing Derek went unconscious. Roger stayed with him holding onto the boat and onto Derek to keep him from drowning. About 5 minutes after Derek went out, Rob surfaced and Roger called him to help. Rob got in the boat and pulled Derek in. Then about another 10 minutes passed waiting for all to get out of the water and then came the 1 hour boat trip back to the marina.
The were able to arrange an ambulance to meet them at the marina. Then came the Mexican healthcare system.
Derek spent some time in Guaymas, but the hyperbaric was insufficient so they took him to Obregon to a privately held larger chamber. There they did a 90 minute treatment, but Derek was very combative and obviously in a lot of pain.
He was brought to Tucson via medical jet and brought to TMC.
He has had 2 hyperbaric treatments since he has been at TMC and they are planning on 2 more over the next 2 days.

The doctors are now saying that they expect his current condition to slowly progress over weeks not days, but they feel good that he is so young and strong that he will be able to overcome the damage that has happened

Here's another update:
Derek just finished another Hyperbaric treatment. The doctors are saying that the cat scan looks normal. This is good news except they really don't know for sure what the problem is right now. They are assuming that he is suffering from damage caused by air embolism, but since it took so long to get him here from Mexico, they are working a lot on the story of what happened just before he went out and the symptoms of what they are seeing now.
The doctors are also assuming that all air embolisms have been absorbed or purged at this time, but that some damaged has occured that is causing him global control problems. He can breathe on his own, but they are keeping him on a ventilator to ensure proper breathing in and out of the hyperbaric chamber.
At this point when we pressured the doctor for a prognosis, he wouldn't say that he is optimistic, but he would say that he is not pessimistic. This is largely because Derek is young and strong and that he should be able to overcome the damage that has happened.
The Morning nurse today said that she worked with him today, off of the medication that keeps him out during the hyperbaric treatment. He was not very responsive. He would open his eyes a little, but not really make eye contact that would make you think he is understanding or even really acknowledging communication. His motor skills are similar. He moves his arms, but does not seem to have any fine motor skills. Basically just not a good connection, between his brain and the rest of his body.

My uncle also posted pictures of him in the hospital, but they just make me cry, so I won't post them. These are some pictures of us throughout the summer. He stayed and worked in Kayenta the whole summer and just left last Friday. I wouldn't admit it to him, but I was really sad that he left. Our house was very empty without him. When he left I realized I'm really going to miss him while he is on his mission.

At graduation in May


Derek and Jory playing Madden 10 on X-Box. They did this ALL the time.


Derek posing in Jory's suit.


Playing SingStar. He was really getting into it.


So please pray for Derek. He really needs it.

22 weeks

Here's our baby at 22 weeks. I have to get an ultrasound every two weeks now, so the doctor can check my cervix. Our baby was playing with her feet yesterday. In the second picture she's grabbing her feet. It's kind of fun getting ultrasounds all the time, even though the ultrasound tech almost didn't let us see her because she didn't know if the doctor wanted measurements. It kind of annoyed me. If she's in the area already she might as well let us see our baby! Anyway, everything is going really well! Which makes me very happy!

It's a Girl!

Me and Jory were very shocked to find out we were having a girl. We for sure thought we were having a boy. We haven't even picked out any girl names yet! I was so excited and I still am! Jory still wishes she was a boy. I started feeling bad that I always thought of her as a boy, but then I remembered my mom thought I was going to be a boy and name me Ned, so I'm glad I came out a girl!

Here's our cute little baby girl. She weighs 13 ounces now.



Jory asked what size her feet were and the ultrasound tech didn't know, so she measured them for us.



20 weeks