"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."  Ps 46:1

Yestarday (Thursday) was a very long, tiring and difficult day for Nate.  It all started wonderfully when he got his hair washed and a good clean up, but then at 1:00 he had to go for dressing changes and some debridement of tissue (cutting away dead tissue)  They had to roll Nate over on his stomach (partially onto his stomach) inorder to deal with his leg.  They then put a vaccu seal dressing on this leg,  cleaned up Nate's stump and redressed it with silver (help keep the area clean and prevent infection) gauze and cling.  Nate was pretty exhausted when all this was done.  Unfortunately right after they put the vaccu seal dressing on it wouldn't work (it work by sucction and needs to be completely sealed to do so) it wouldn't seal properly and so wouldn't sucction properly either.  Four different nurses attempted to fix this problem and worked on his leg on and off until 7:00p.m.  This is extremely exhausting and painful. Also at about 6:30 they started Nate's dialysis. 

At 8:00 they decided to remove the vaccu seal and put on the 'normal' dressing.  On night shift they don't normally do dressing changes and so they are not staffed to do dressing changes, this makes it difficult on Nate who has to help lift and turn his leg.  They got the dressing done, and then had to try work on his vaccu seal on his arm which was saying there was a blockage in the suction somewhere.  They attempted to fix this and it appeared fixed until I left and then the alarms started again.  I'm not sure what they did to it after I left.

The other thing that happened is that while on dialysis the blood clotted around the filter, which shuts down the machine.  Thankfully they were able to return all Nates blood to him.  When they called the doctor, the nurse was informed that Nate would have to have dialysis again last night to complete the 4 hour treatment required. So Nate needed to have another treatment.  All this moving, dressing changes, dialysis etc. is extremely tiring and draining,  but through it all Nate had to remind me that its all in God's hands and He is in full control though it may seem like a step backwards.  I am so thankful God has blessed Nate with trust and faith in Him alone. What an amazing God we have. He never lets us go one step down the path alone.

Please continue to remember us all in your prayers.  Please pray for the hands of the nurse who have such extensive dressing changes. Pray for the hands of the doctors who must use their training to help Nate heal.  But most importantly pray that God will continue to sustain and strength Nate, myself, our children and famillies spiritually through this all.  Our God is an awsome God.