August 29, 2005 - Two steps forward and one step back

Hello everyone! Today has been a busy day. Erik had an uneventful night and seemed to have rested well. Today around 1:30, they moved him to the floor. All was well for about say 30 minutes which is when he had a seizure. At this point, he moved to intermediate intensive care which is between intensive care and the floor – basically one-on-one nursing on the floor. He got over the seizure just to have another around 3:30. And another at 4:30. At this point, he moved back to intensive care. This is where he needs to be right now so they can keep a closer eye on him. We understand that after a procedure like Erik had, it is not uncommon to have some swelling of the brain tissue and/or an increase in seizure activity. We have an EEG scheduled for tomorrow which is good. We know that this is how it goes – 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Erik appears to have taken MANY steps forward so far and we remain faithful and confident that God is continuing to heal him in ways we cannot see. Erik was still moving around quite a bit today and alert and interested in his surroundings so this was good. His body just appears to need a little more “rest time” right now. The family head home tomorrow so pray for their trip to go well and for Erik to have a day filled with positive events! The enemy still is trying but we know Erik is protected by the blood of God, the Holy Spirit, and your powerful prayers. You cannot imagine the level of strength this gives us throughout the day. God bless each of you!!! Erik's Family

August 28, 2005 - Erik is moving!

Seriously, he is moving!!! He woke up around 11:00 am and as we walked into the room he was moving his arms and looking around. Wendy’s vision of Erik’s arms moving was presented to us almost in exact detail. We were both grinning from ear to ear. He was looking around the room. It was a glorious site. We showed Erik the picture of our family we had taken last week and he focused on it for at least a minute. He kept rubbing his head and trying to take his oxygen tube out of his nose. It really was a great thing to see. He has not done any of this for months. He did have some possible seizure activity right before he received his 12:00 medicines and the decision was made to give him his regular medications and a boost of another medicine to ensure there was no recurring activity for the remainder of the day. We need to keep things settled during this adjustment time for him. His blood pressure stabilized last night and remained stable throughout the day. This was his body and God’s work because no medications were given to regulate any of this. We also learned today that his CT scan came back good and that his ventricles are actually smaller than they have been in the past. This too is answered prayer!! Please take time to thank God specifically for the miracles he is showing in Erik. Also continue to lift Erik up for the next 2 days. He is a good and faithful God and loves us very much. We are meeting new people and sharing God’s love here so pray for us to continue to share Erik’s story and God’s love for His glory. More progress to come . . . Erik's Family

August 27, 2005 - News from CA

Greetings from CA!!!! It has been an interesting day! Erik’s procedure started around 4:00 instead of 11:30. This was okay though because we used this time to talk with some of the other doctors we will be working with over the next few weeks. We were also able to set up an appointment for an EEG on Monday to get things started looking at the neurology side. As for tonight, around 8:15, the doctors came out and told us they were done. They were surprised at what they saw once they looked at Erik through the angiogram – his anatomy is very complex. We were once again told that they had never seen an anatomy like Erik’s. This being said, they had to adjust their treatment plan quickly. They were extremely pleased with the results. They were able to block off the entire problem area which is more that they expected to do in one procedure. There may still be some areas that need to be addressed but they are on the vein side instead of the a rtery side. We will have to let time pass before we see if it will be necessary to address this. They also said they don’t expect to have to do this again and that if they address the vein side, it will most likely be in 3 weeks or so. All is up in the air though depending on how he comes out of this the next few days. For now, Erik is highly critical for the next 72 hours. He may be the same, better, or he could experience excessive clotting or a bleed – both could be really bad for him. They will allow him to start waking up some tomorrow to see how he is doing. There is an entirely new blood flow pattern established now and we just need to pray that Erik’s body will accept this new pattern. Everyone here is very interested in Erik and his prognosis which we now are optimistic that it has a good chance of improving. We also learned today that much of the weakness and inconsistencies of abilities Erik has been experiencing may have been due to the blood flow issues and not necessarily the medicine alone like we suspected. We can’t know for sure but we are asking for prayers to specifically be for Erik’s body to positively adjust to the new blood flow pattern over the next 72 hours and that when he awakens he will show physical signs that there is improvement. The CT scan immediately following the procedure showed no signs of a bleed and the doctors appeared greatly pleased with this. Right after we talked with the physician, we had an image of Erik waking up with his arms moving around and his eyes open and looking around. It was like a dream without sleeping. Perhaps this was God showing us what is to come! Please pray for Margot, Brigitte and Nick to continue doing well and for Jaymee and Doug who are caring for them to be rested and strengthened during this time of a temporarily extended family! Please also continue to pray for us and the physicians and staff here who have just been wonderful! We appreciate you continuing to lift us up in prayer and ask that you help us continue to move through this until we see the end results of God’s manifestation of healing in Erik! PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Erik's Family

August 25, 2005 - Stanford Day 2

Hello All, The weather in California is wonderful. Sunny and mid 70’s during the day and low 60’s at night. Absolutely wonderful. The hospital is huge and the people are very nice. We are all set for the procedure tomorrow. We discussed the procedure with the doctors today. We planned to send an email tomorrow but decided we had some specific prayer requests for Erik. Following the procedure, the plan is for Erik to stay in Intensive Care for the first 24 to 48 hours and then send him to a regular room for a day of observation before being discharged. Because of the nature of Erik’s condition, he has an extremely high risk for a brain bleed the first 48 hours post procedure. This is why he will have more intensive care in the ICU. The doctors said today that they do not know how much of a change we can expect from Erik since some of the past set backs could be permanent. They basically do not know if we are addressing the issue of the AVM in time to regain what he has lost over the past 9-12 months. We have been praying for a miracle. We can’t wait to see how God brings us through this but it is certainly difficult to wait it out! Pray for Erik to experience full recovery! The last time, and only time, Erik had this procedure resulted in Erik suffering a stroke on December 11, 2003. Please pray for us to have peace and faith and for God to manifest healing in Erik! Prayer is so powerful. We know that. We hope that every time you think of Erik tomorrow that you will say a prayer for him and our family. I am sure we will have good news to celebrate this weekend. We already have good news to celebrate!! Prayers have been answered. We visited the Ronald McDonald House today after we left the hospital and learned that they had just left us a voicemail saying that they have a room available for us. THANK YOU GOD!!! We took a tour of the house and it is absolutely awesome. It’s very clean and it has 47 beds. Everyone has their own room. They have 6 TV/Lounge rooms to relax in and a huge kitchen with a huge frig and freezer. We also have our own small (dorm like) frig in the kitchen area. Here is our new address and telephone number. Erik and Wendy Medlin C/O Ronald McDonald House Room 209 520 Sand Hill Road Palo Alto, CA 94304 Telephone # 650-470-6000 (This is the main line and then you will need to ask for Wendy or room 209) Thank you in advance for your prayers tomorrow. We have some great prayer warriors and we know great things will happen. God Bless you all!!! Erik's Family

August 24, 2005 - Getting to California

We had a really good experience this morning flying to Dallas, TX and then to San Jose, CA. Everyone with American Airlines was great! Our arrival at the hotel was somewhat disappointing though. As many of you know, we have been trying to make arrangements to stay at the Ronld McDonald house here. Last week, we were told that they did not have a room for us but that they would give us the names of hotels that would give us a discount until hopefully a room opened up at the Ronald McDonald house. The hotel we initially chose and made a reservation with did not have a microwave or refrigerator in the room or a bath tub like we were originally told they would have. We need this for Erik - especially since we will be here for a while. Anyway, the search of the other hotels was also disappointing. Same issues as before or in an area that did not appear to be quiet or safe like we had hoped. The last on the search was a Hampton Inn in Mountain View, CA which is about 6 minutes from the hospital. They had an opening, a refrigerator, a disabled accessible room available and they were REALLY nice! YEAH! The General Manager was so helpful and even gave us a free night for tonight. So here we are until the Ronald McDonald House has an opening. It could be tomorrow, a few weeks, or not at all when a room opens up. With one of the hotels we went to, there was already a family from the Ronald McDonald house there who is also waiting for a room so who knows how many more may be ahead of us. We have been blessed to have met so many people just today, many of whom will now also be praying for Erik through this experience. We know we are here for a reason and can't wait to see who else God puts in our path. Thanks to all of you who have been lifting us up in prayer today especially. Tomorrow is the pre-op appointment and Friday is the first procedure. The procedure is high risk for Erik so please pray us, the doctors, and nurses through this! Love in Christ, Erik's Family