Month: March 2021

I haven't posted any pictures of Kendall in a long time, and for good reason. I do have Kendall's permission to post this one, though. Because yes, Kendall is now awake and interactive enough to GIVE me permission. I cannot fully express how good it has been to hear his voice again, and that it's getting stronger every day. When this picture was taken Kendall had fallen…

Over the past several months I have mentioned various family members like my dad, the kids, my mother-in-law, or my sister. I have not, however, written about my mom. That has been a conscious choice, a sort of self-preservation if you will. You might find it funny that I'm able to write all of these things about Kendall's situation, or deep struggles I have had, but even…

There's no denying that this past week has been incredibly intense. I won't pretend to understand what it would actually feel like to say a final good-bye to Kendall in this mortal life, but I imagine it will be the most difficult and gut-wrenching thing I have ever experienced. I can say, though, that there is a confidence in knowing that I came right up to that…

Today was nothing short of miraculous. I know there were a lot of people praying for, fasting, and thinking about us today. Thank you. Kendall was the most awake, alert, and responsive today that I have seen for more than three weeks. He was able to sit up in a chair for the kids' visits (they came in one at a time), and he waved at them,…

I mentioned yesterday how very sick Kendall is, despite his being more awake and alert. The doctors had determined that as long as nothing new went wrong, they were OK to continue aggressively treating things and waiting a bit to see if Kendall improved. Well, something new did happen. Kendall is now bleeding internally, quite a bit, which has made his blood pressure dip dangerously low. That…

Yesterday was a really rough day. It was the least responsive I have ever seen Kendall. He just would not wake up, and he was unresponsive to commands during his neurological exams throughout the day. It was especially emotional for me when the music therapist came by and Kendall did not respond at all to the songs she sang (ones I'd picked that had memories for both…

The decision was made today to wait on taking Kendall off of the ventilator. Results of a brain MRI showed that he might have meningitis. While that diagnosis is serious, it is potentially treatable. If that is contributing to Kendall's current cognitive state, and treating this could possibly help him to improve, the doctors want to explore that further before taking him off of any life support…

This has been a pretty difficult, emotional day. I needed to make some end of life decisions with Kendall's medical team, and discussed in detail what it would look like having the family come to the hospital to see him. They will probably be taking Kendall off of the ventilator tomorrow morning. Did you know that ventilators are usually only used as temporary fixes? That it is…