Saturday, November 26, 2005

Wide Awake and Wondering

Yesterday was a day of wonderment for us all. Paul was able to recognize his family and gave some very familiar facial expressions. As the day wore on, he started to show signs of stress as he tried to figure out why some things were not working on his body. He kept moving his right hand over to his left arm to see why he could not move it. He appears to try to talk, and his look tells us he is frustrated. He has had a couple of panic attacks during the night. He had tears in his right eye today as he looked at Jon and me. It is apparent he is struggling to make sense of his world. This is a difficult thing to watch, especially when we can see he is stressed.

His lungs are improving, he is on about 30% oxygen. At 21% he will be able to come off the ventilator. After some time, the trach will also be removed, but we are looking at weeks ahead for that. He will have the feeding tube reinserted into his stomach, and are prayerful that his digestive system can handle it. He was not tolerating food very well all this last week. He had the tube removed to let his intestines rest. He will be back on it today, with the tube inserted directly into the stomach.

He seems to be sweating yesterday, and the fever was down. It was up again last night, but he is down to 99 degrees again. The spiking in fever has come down, it is not so wide a gap as the past few days.

The inability to move his left arm is physical - not a brain issue. It may be that there is damage at the neck on the left side. It is an issue that they will be looking at, but not crucial at this time. Also, they won't need to do surgery on his eye to remove the blood behind the eye. His body will absorb that on its own. No surgery is a good thing at this time, as it only means added trauma to his body. Praise God for the fact that no surgery is needed.

Please continue to pray especially for his lungs to heal quickly. Getting him off the ventilator is primary and getting his intestinal system back on track is also a reason for prayer.

We thank everyone who has posted a comment, as it brings tears of joy each evening as we sit and read them. As crazy as it sounds, we are able to rejoice in so many things each day and are most especially grateful to God as we start the season of Advent. What an awesome gift given to us in the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Love to all,
Jon and Rebecca Fidero

5 comments:

Alison said...

I'm so glad that Paul is awake now! Just reading the blogs everyday are heartwrenching, but your encouraging words keep me hopeful and I continue to urge others to be hopeful about Paul. They also bring back memories of your kind and loving family.

So on a previous post, you mentioned a Chip Huggins whose mother called you one evening about his accident. I found out that Chip actually lives two doors down from me in my apartment at Georgia Tech. Thought it was an interesting thing to share.

I hope everything continues to go well. - Alison

Anonymous said...

Good morning, Paul!

I hope you had a restful night and were able to make some sense of what you are experiencing now. I'm sure yesterday was a very confusing, if not downright frightening, day for you. If I know your parents and brothers at all, I am certain they did their loving best to answer all the questions you must have but are unable to speak for yourself.

Paul, you are the miracle child of this Miracle Season. While you probably don't feel that way right now, you will soon come to know just how much you are loved by so many - not the least of whom is Our Lord Jesus. He is the reason you will be able to read this and all the other heartfelt posts expressing deep love and concern for you and your family.

The hard part of this ordeal seems to be over for us but is just beginning for you. Please know that the prayerful community that has taken up your case before God will not abandon you as you start your part of the journey. We are all still solidly behind you with continuing prayers of love for you. God will not abandon what He has wrought through you, Paul.

While we prayed for you individually and in groups, God was busy healing the spirits of those who prayed even as He held back his miracle for you until the moment was right for His plan. All things in God's time. You have been restored to us by the blessing of God and He will continue to pour out His mercy upon you and all that prayed for you.

How perfect is it that we have this miracle to offer back to God as we approach the Advent season? Ther are never an coincidences in God's plan, as so eloquently stated earlier by your family here at this web site.

"Let us rejoice and be glad" - indeed !!!

Peace, Love and a chocolate shake,
uj

Anonymous said...

Rebecca,
Just as I knew your pain of the past weeks, I know your joy of today. Praise God! He is so good to us. Many, many souls have been touched by your suffering and many will come to Jesus because of it. Thank you for your honest sharing of your faith. You and your family will remain in my prayers for the weeks and months to come. I pray that Paul gets into Shepherd, as it is an excellent facility (as is Pathways, their outpatient facility).
Kathy Evanina

Anonymous said...

Dear Paul and Atlanta Fidero’s,

Yesterday was such a Special Day for the Fidero Family. We were all together getting ready for Sean and Tanya’s wedding, except for the Atlanta Fidero’s and Mike Deegan and his family, who we wish all could have also been here.

As we were doing cleanup from the Rehearsal Dinner that we hosted on Thanksgiving and trying to get organized for the special day we had ahead of us, Steph hopped on to the computer to check for any new updates from your family.

With such joy in her voice, she called out to all of us “Paul Is Awake!!!!” This brought everyone running and crowding around the computer to read this joyful news. It brought tears of joy to all of us as we all hugged and praised God for this wonderful news. It was so awesome that we were all together when we got the news. We immediately called your dad on the speaker phone to get more detail. We could all hear the relief and joy in his voice. He had us laughing about some of the events.

With this great news, we all moved forward with getting ready for the Wedding. Between the two great events, nothing could go wrong with this day now.

We called Jimmy on our way to the wedding site. It was great to hear his voice so much more cheerful. We had not spoken to him personally since Monday, Nov. 14th, which was not one of the best days. Just talking with him made us all smile even more.

The wedding was in Oceanside, right on the beach. It was beautiful!! From what we could tell, everything went off just as planned. We then had a great dinner at the Chart House in Cardiff overlooking the beach with the waves breaking on the shore. Sean and Tanya make such a cute couple. I am sure they will have a long, happy, blessed life together.

We called our friends and family that has been praying for you and the girls posted the good news on their “My Space.” Everyone is so excited that God has answered our prayers again. We will all continue to pray for your recovery. It will be one step at a time, but remember, you have a lot of people pulling for you.

We couldn’t have asked for a better Thanksgiving!

We are looking forward to seeing all of you over the forth of July when we come to Atlanta for Kelly to compete in the Jr. Olympics again. So keep the calendar clear.

God Bless You All!!!

Love you, The California Fidero’s

Anonymous said...

Dear Fidero Family -- God has truly blessed you all today and every day! I am so happy and excited to read of Paul's miraculous progress -- I can only imagine how y'all must feel. Paul, you, your parents and brothers will be in my prayers every day, and I'm looking forward to the day that I read about you walking over to your mom for a hug! My love to all of you from the northwest, and hello to all of the Browns who see this!

Judy