Goodbye....for now, Danny! Adios...por ahora, Daniel!

Many of you already know this, but our beloved son Danny went home to be with Jesus at 12:00 a.m., this Sunday, September 8th, 2013. So many are already saying: "I don't know what to say" Well, guess what? "I don't know what to say!" He went into cardiac arrest, they attempted to bring him back for 30 minutes and then we were able to hold him, sing to him and tell him "The Little Red Hen" one more time. Victor and I were with him for nearly an hour. Then we waited for the funeral home to make arrangements until 6:15 a.m. After that, we borrowed Ricardo and Susana's car and went to my in-laws where three of our kids had spent the night: Martita, Lolis and Fidel. We broke them the news and then took them home and told the rest of the kids. By then, we had already told Adrian, Vero and my Mom by phone. So, right now we are officially in a daze....we have cried, sang, read the Bible....we are having a private time with Danny at 5:00 p.m. and then an open-to-everybody service/showing/wake from 6:00-10:00 p.m. at our church. His burial is tomorrow at noon at the little cemetery at the bottom of our hill...near Aunt Patty and Cirino and Nancy's little girl Lucia. Thank you for sustaining us with your prayers! May God be glorified!

Es con gran tristeza y gran gozo que escribo para decirles que nuestro hijo amado, Daniel, se fue para estar con Jesus justo a medianoche para amanecer hoy domingo, 8 de septiembre, 2013. Muchas ya nos han dicho: "No se que decir." Y, adivinan que? Yo no se que decir! El entro en paro e intentaron 30 minutos reanimarlo. Luego nos dieron la oportunidad de estar con el: Victor y yo tomamos turnos cargandolo, cantandole, orando por el, por nosotros, le conte "La Gallinita Roja" una vez mas. Victor y yo estuvimos con el casi una hora. Luego esperamos para la funeraria hasta las 6:15 a.m. Entonces fuimos a la casa de mis suegros porque Martita, Lolis y Fidel habian quedado alli anoche para ir al primer culto hoy. Les dimos las noticias primero a ellos y luego juntos venimos a la casa para avisar a los demas de nuestros hijos. Ya les habiamos avisado a Adrian, Vero, mi Papa (quien llega hoy en avion) y mi Mama (quien sigue aqui en el Rancho).

Ahorita estamos, bueno, yo siento que estoy en un sueno, una nube....se que es real, pero me cuesta creerlo. Como familia, ya hemos llorado, y mucho, cantado, leido la Biblia.

Les invitamos a todos y cada uno de Uds. a acompanarnos hoy para celebrar los cinco anos de vida que Dios le dio a Danny y empezar a ser testigos de la Gloria de Dios que sabemos que se vera por medio de esta situacion. Lo estaremos velando en la Iglesia Cristiana de Paz, Zaragoza #7, Tlalpizahuac, Ixtapaluca, Edo. de Mexico de las 6:00 p.m. a las 10:00 p.m.

Su sepultorio sera manana, lunes, 9 de septiembre, a mediodia aqui en un panteoncito abajito de nuestra casa en el Rancho. Les pedimos que los que puedan y quieran que traigan un guisado para compartir tacos de guisado despues de su sepultorio.

Gracias por sus oraciones que nos estan sosteniendo! Que Dios sea glorificado!

Emergency Prayer Request

Another emergency prayer request: Thanks for riding this roller coaster with us! 

We hadn't had news of Danny all day and there was no visit at noon. At first we thought that was good, but as the afternoon wore on and there was no visit nor report we realized that it was probably because the doctor was too busy. Well, that second assumption was true....Danny and another baby, Armandito, have literally kept her running all morning! The Dr. came out a few minutes ago to so that Danny is doing very poorly. He started a wacked out arrhythmia at 9:00 this morning and his heart hasn't had a normal rhythm since. The Dr. shocked him once, upped his meds, added another med and he is barely responding to the medication...which means his heart is tiring out. She expected him to go into cardiac arrest, but she was able to pull him out of it before he did. The crash cart is back next to his bed and he is lying on the tablet they use when doing CPR just in case they need it! We re-expressed our desire to be present if Jesus calls him home!

Here's a new analogy for today: when we get good news I tell myself to not get excited because you know that it can change at any moment in time! But, yesterday I decided to fully rejoice in any good news because it is still good news! Although you tell yourself the bad news can come you really believe that the good news is the start of a string of good news.

So, here's the analogy: it's like blowing a bubble outside....you so enjoy that bubble's beauty, how it floats through the air, the colors that it reflects off the sun, how you can even see the clouds in the bubble. The whole time you are enjoying that bubble you know it is going to burst, but when it does pop you are disappointed! That is exactly how we are feeling right now! A few weeks ago when the kids came to visit, we blew bubbles out in front of the hospital. One of the bubbles was starting to go higher than the others...we all started cheering it on! It reached the first floor, then the second, looked like it was going to crash into the building, but pulled away and kept going up....another close encounter with the third floor windows and another tight escape....that bubble flew higher than the five story hospital! Even though that bubble blew out of sight, had it popped we would have been so disappointed, like happened with hundreds of others afternoon. Yesterday we enjoyed the bubbles of good news and that bubble has popped! Today we are looking at a smaller bubble and hoping with our entire being that it doesn't pop....but knowing that it is much more likely that it will pop than that it will simply disappear into the horizon.

Thank you for sustaining Danny, us and our family in your prayers! May God's perfect will be done! I so hope that my will is His will, but I KNOW that His will is good! So, may HIS will be done!

Interestingly, the woman that has become my best friend in cardio, Carla, is suffering. Her one year old son, Armandito, is doing very poorly. During this last month we have comforted each other when one of us has been sad or struggling, but right now we are both walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Please pray for her and her son, too!

We will be sitting on our metal yellow bench and waiting....waiting on the Lord! Good thing that He promises that those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength because I really need some of that right now!

P.S. Ditto the post below regarding "Blessed Be the Lord!"

Summary of Where Danny's At Now

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY JULIE FOR FACEBOOK LAST NIGHT (SEPT. 6)  I (HER DAD) AM POSTING IT HERE ON SATURDAY.

Sorry for not updating last night....I had the update just about written and the money on my broadband ran out. It was 11:30 p.m. and no place to purchase more time on my broadband. (There is no internet in the hospital, but I have my laptop with me and my USB broadband.) But, we are back in business now. So, here is last night's update:

Today was a calm day...praise the Lord! I hadn't written an update because there wasn't much to update and, after all we lived through yesterday (Thursday), my brain wasn't much good for anything beyond the very basics today. I struggle with saying that Danny is doing "well" because that may imply that he is awake, talking, eating, sitting up, etc. We are a long away from any of that! The best description for his condition right now really is: "Danny is alive!" We saw him twice today. At the beginning of each visit the doctors ask me: "How are you?" My answer today was: "Thrilled to be at a visit with my son still alive!"

Praise Jesus that Danny is doing better now than this afternoon, and this afternoon he was doing better than this morning and this morning he was doing better than last night! However, to understand our new perspective of "better" please imagine a marathon race and then imagine moving one inch forward. That is "better" for us at this point in time! So, in that sense of the word "better", Danny is doing "better"...in other words, he moved forward an inch or so in his recovery. Please just remember that his simply being alive today is a miracle and a blessing...we really aren't too worried about making progress at this point. Our doctor told us from the get go, that as long as a patient in intensive care isn't going backwards he is moving forwards!

In summary:
*they are gradually reducing some of his medications...reducing means lowering the med by two tenths of a milliliter per hour, waiting to make sure that Danny reacts favorably, then lowering another med two tenths of a milliliter, waiting, etc. He currently has 11 IV pumps.

*he is TOTALLY sedated: I tell him stories, tell him what day of the week and what time it is, what his siblings are doing at home, sing to him and pray for him assuming he can hear me, but I have no indicator if he can or not. His eyes are taped shut so that they don't partially open on their own and bother him. He doesen't move his head, squeeze fingers or move at all. They plan on keeping him totally sedated until Sun. or Mon. because....

*as I previously mentioned they took his trach out. So, the hole in his neck is now covered by a special substance (I call it caulking, for lack of the right medical term in my vocabulary) and covered by gauze and tape. He is intubated with the ventilator going in through his mouth like he was after surgery. They keep him totally sedated because if he starts to move and air leaks out of his trach site, that will cause his heart to work harder, which they believe was partially what caused his heart attacks...leakage from around his trach. (He was leaking from around the trach because, due his malnutrition, his skin did not close in tight around the trach, allowing some of the air that was going in to escape back out again.) So, it is important he is totally still for now. However a HUGE praise is that his oxygen saturation when I went in to see him this evening was 99%! That is amazing! A normal human being should have an oxygen saturation of 99-100%. Danny has a normal saturation....I think that's the first time Danny has ever been normal! Before surgery, Danny lived with a daily oxygen saturation rate of 70-75%! After surgery, he was saturating at 85-90%, but we had never seen such good levels as today! Let's keep those numbers right there!

*more good news: they started him back on his IV nutrition, called TPN...he had been on a fast since his heart attacks and they hadn't expected to start him on the nutrition until Monday because there was a certain substance in his blood that skyrockets after a heart attack...it should be at a level 1, and yesterday it was at a level 10, but today the levels were back to normal, so they started him on the TPN. This is good because it will get some calories in him.

*his blood pressure and heart rate have been good, but are being controlled by medication, although he is no longer connected to the pacemaker! He hasn't had any arrhythmia today, although in my first visit today I watched his blood pressure plummet and they shot some extra medicine into him to bring it back up

*he continues to drain fluid from his right lung, this is due to the chylotorax condition he developed after surgery, but the fluid isn't accumulating and is draining well

*they moved the crash cart out of his room (There are 6 beds in Cardiac ICU in one big open area. However, there are two isolated beds that are set apart by glass walls. Danny is in one of those...so now the crash cart is out in the general area instead of right next to his bed.)

OK, I think that's everything! Was it enough to read? By now you probably had to refill your coffee cup!  Love you all!

Now the not so good news..../Y ahora las noticias no tan buenas....

Danny suffered another two heart attacks today at 4:15 p.m., numbers five and six for today. The doctors called us in, as we had requested, and watched the doctor do chest compressions and then shock him twice to get his heart back in rhythm. Danny is still with us! He is extremely unstable, but has a good heart beat and good heart pressure again and LOTS of medications! It was a surreal experience and I truly felt a peace that passes all understanding. With the same breath I said: "Lord, if it is your will, take him. Lord, breathe your life into him." My Jesus knows my heart: "Not my will be done, but yours, Father."

Thankfully our Pastor, his wife, two of my friends from church and Ricardo and Susana (our hosts where I sleep, we bathe, etc.) were downstairs, bringing us something to eat, at the time and could pray during and with us afterwards.

Danny sufrio dos paros hoy a las 4:15 p.m......la quinta y sexta del dia de hoy. Los doctores nos hablaron como habiamos pedido y miramos mientras el Dr. le hacia compresiones y luego dos veces con una carga electrica para regresar su ritmo cardiaca. Pero....Danny sigue aqui con nosotros! Esta extremadamente inestable, pero tiene un buen ritmo cardiaca y una buena presion y MUCHO medicamento. Fue una experiencia irreal y senti una paz que verdaderamente pasa todo entendimiento. Con el mismo respiro dije: "Senor, si es tu voluntad, llevalo. Senor, sopla su respiro de vida en el." Mi Cristo conoce mi corazon: "Que no se haga mi voluntad, Padre, pero la tuya."

Gracias a Dios que el Pastor Ruben, Ely, la Hma. Isabel, Bere, Ricardo y Susana estaban en planta principal y pudieron orar con nosotros despues de que paso.

Some Good News!

Dr. Palacios just came out from seeing Daniel and he said things are looking a bit better. He feels that most of Daniel's problems have been related to his breathing. After the trach, due to Danny's malnourished state, he did not heal tightly around the canula (the tube in this throat), so there was oxygen leaking out of that. That may have led to the other heart issues. Right now, with the ventilator going through his mouth, he is oxygenating much better and his heart is beating regularly and well. Praise Jesus! He is totally sedated. Since he is "stable" they are going to just leave him like that today and not move anything. They are considering doing a heart cath tomorrow to check his heart function and see what is going wrong on the inside, but are going to give him today to just rest. There is always a risk of another heart attack, but we are in a better position than just a few hours ago. Praise, praise, praise Jesus! He is soooooo merciful! We still trust Him to do His perfect will!

El Dr. Palacios acaba de salir de ver a Daniel y dice que los cosas se ven un poco mejor. El siente que los problemas de Daniel estan relacionados con su oxigenacion. Despues del traqueo, debido a su malnutricion, no se cerro la herida alrededor de la canula (el tubo que entra en su garganta), y habia oxigeno fugandose por alli. Esto puede haber causado algunos problemas con su corazon. Por ahora, con el ventilador por medio de su boca esta oxigenandose mucho mejor y su corazon esta en un ritmo normal. Gloria a Dios! Danny esta totalmente sedado. Ya que esta "estable", no le van a mover nada hoy para ver como evoluciona. Estan considerando hacer un cateterismo manana para checar su corazon y ver si encuentran lo que esta fallando adentro, pero le van a dar hoy para descansar. Siempre hay un riesgo de otro paro en cualquier momento, pero estamos ahorita un poco mejor que hace un par de horas. Alaben, alaben, alaben a Jesus! Es tan misericordioso! Todavia le confiamos para hacer su perfecta voluntad.

Some Good News

Two praises: Last night, after getting the bad report on Daniel, several other Moms came around to hear how things were going and hear Daniel's story. Four people accepted Christ last night: two Moms, a Grandma and a security guard!

Secondly, this morning when Danny went into cardiac arrest the doctors "just happened" to be at his bedside! All the CICU doctors were together doing their rounds and they watched his oxygen go down and realized the moment he went into cardiac arrest. They immediately started chest compressions....so the cardiac arrest was what they called "assisted". His brain was never without oxygen because they were right there. God is soooooo good!

Nos dijeron hace poco los doctores que Daniel esta un poco mas estable ahora que despues de sus cuatro paros cardiacos (no fueron simplemente paros respiratorios). Las cosas, por supuesto, pueden cambiar de un momento para el otro..solo queriamos decirles lo mas reciente! Victor y yo estamos aqui en sala de espera del hospital; los ninos estan en casa con mi mama y Vero. Los ninos saben lo que esta pasando y cancelamos escuela para hoy. Por favor, sigan orando por mi Mama, Vero y los ninos! Hemos llorado, hemos reido, orando?...lo hacemos con cada respirar. Como puedo expresar nuestros sentimientos? Sabemos la gravedad de la situacion en que nos encontramos y hemos pedido que si los doctores lo tienen que volver a reanimar que estemos presentes y que si ellos determinan que ya no se puede hacer nada que me lo pasen...lo quiero en mis brazos. Pero, NO HEMOS DEJADO DE CREER EN LA TOTAL E INDISCUTIBLE PODER DE DIOS DE LEVANTAR A DANNY Y SACARLO DE AQUI CORRIENDO! Dios es perfecto, Dios es bueno...que se haga su voluntad!

Danny Critical

Danny is extremely critical....he went into respiratory arrest four times this morning and was gone for a total of 16 minutes. Everytime they brought him back he was totally awake and aware, so they have sedated him. The doctors are clueless as to what is going on. He doesn't have clinical signs of a blood clot; they can't move him to do any testing; they are doing another ecosonogram right now, hoping that something shows up! The doctors haven't given up, Danny hasn't given up and they say we shouldn't either! They took out his trach and he is back on the ventilator through his mouth. We can't say thank you enough for your prayers!