I had the opportunity to spend a few days with Travis in Salt Lake to give my aunt and cousins some time off.

It was so nice. It was good to see him and to be able to help him. After 10 days of lots of pain and discomfort it seems like the doctors have figured out a good combination of pain meds to keep him comfortable. He was up all night Friday night due to a change they made to his trach. His doctor came in Saturday morning and saw they had changed it and was not happy. So a long painful, sleepless night turned out to have been for nothing. He continued to be miserable all day Saturday. He would cough a lot which leads to him needing to be suctioned which leads to more coughing and more sucretions which leads to more suctioning...are you getting the picture. It's a cycle.

When his night nurse came on we asked for something to help him sleep and he was right on it. He called his doctor and they tweaked his pain meds a little and added another one and within 30 minutes Travis was able to sleep. He had a wonderful night Saturday sleeping a good amount of time and only having to be suctioned a few times.

He did great all day Sunday. Therapy came and walked with him around the halls and said he did fabulous. The doctors ordered him to walk the halls four times on Sunday. He has pneumonia and he needs to be able to get up and walk around to help clear it up.

His surgeons came to see him and were so happy with the progress he has made(a few hadn't seen him since the night his surgery was done). They said he looked great and was right on track for his healing.

His eye surgeon thought she would have to do another surgery on his left eye because he had some bleeding behind the retina but when she looked at it today she said it was healing itself. Hooray for small blessings! He could also see the doctor wave her hand out of his left eye. He couldn't tell how many fingers she held up but seeing her wave his hand is far beyond what we were told he would have just after the accident. His right eye is fine. He sees the same out of it as he did before the accident.

His trach could possibly come out today. They put a smaller tube in it yesterday so he will be able to start talking. That was not an easy thing though. Travis ended up passing out. I was gone by then so it was my aunt and Travis' dad. Scary!!

He could possibly come home this week. He needs the pneumonia cleared up and my aunt will need to learn how to do his feeding tube and care for his trach if he still has it.






All things considered Travis looks fabulous. He is extremely swollen right now and his incisions look ouchy but those things will heal. Because of the plates they used to fix his face I think he will make it out looking just like himself with a few scars to prove it really happened. Karl and I have nicknamed him "Ironman". During his fourteen hour surgery they put a metal plate in his:
Lower jaw
Upper jaw
Under both eyes
L cheek
the bone that is inbetween your eye and hairline on his L side
and his nose.

It is so completely amazing what modern medicine can do. And what an amazing blessing it is to live in a time when these things are available.

Travis likes to have pictures taken but does not ask to see them and as far as all of us know he has not looked in a mirror. It's a wise choice on his part because how he looks now will not be the end result. He understands that and maybe that's why he chooses not to see himself right now. He does touch his face a lot. He says it feels "big".

Thank you for all of your prayers, thoughts and comments. Trials are hard to face but with the hard things you endure you also are able to see the true love our Heavenly Father has for us. And that miracles do happen. It is amazing.