Here is an update as of 8:15 PM on Saturday, December 4^th.

Josiah had an early start to the day again, as he went for another CT scan. The results were very positive, and for now, there are no other CT scan planned.  The bruise on his brain is stable!  With that news, the plan for the day was to get him weaned off of the breathing machine so that they could try and wake him up a bit.

• At about 9:30 AM they took him partly out of his sedation and lowered the amount of breaths that the machine was taking for him.  We watched him for a while as he struggled to breath.  I can tell you that was a very tense period of time for me personally.  It hurt to see my son struggle so much just to take a breath.
• They kept the machine on those settings for quite some time, and he did breathe on his own, but it was not as many respirations per minute as they were looking for.
• After doing this for a bit, they asked us to leave the room for a few minutes so they could take a tube out.  We figured that they were going to remove the old feeding tube that they had not been using.  To our surprise, when we came back in about 10 or so minutes later, the entire breathing machine was not only removed from him, but was not even in the room anymore!  His breathing was as normal as could be.  One of the nurses explained that many times the machine actually hinders a young person’s breathing, so they just removed it!  They also stopped giving him the meds that kept him sedated.
• Again, remarks have been made all day about how good he is doing in his progress.  It is remarkable to see how much things have changed in the last 2-3 days. God’s hand has been on Josiah. I call it a miracle!

Some other great things that have happened today:

• Because he is not sedated anymore, he has been a lot more responsive to us than I expected (and I think even more than the medical staff has expected at times!).
• We have been able to see his eyes several times today as he has opened them to communicate with us.  It is so good to be able to look into those eyes again!
• He has been able to do basic commands like squeezing a hand, but has also been able to answer yes and no questions most of the day. Some of the questions we have asked and that he has answered have been about if he is in pain, what parts of his body hurt, and does he know who we are.  He answered all those with flying colors.
• When I asked him about what hurt, he actually shifted his hips and patted his butt, letting me know that his rear end was in pain, which he shook his head yes when I asked if it did.
• I asked him if he knew where he was, to which he tried to talk, and mumbled 3 syllables. I said hospital and he shook his head yes.
• Jennifer posted this story on facebook:

“He has made our hearts glad today in sooo many ways. Both with all of Josiahs progress and the funny things he has done. Maybe Jason will post it more tonight but one thing was the nurses came in to move him so he doesn’t get sore. I think he is tired of them pulling and tugging cause they woke him up and said, “Josiah, we are gonna move you, okay?” He literally picked his whole rear end up off the bed and shifted to the other side, as if to say, here I will do it for… you. So, I praised him outloud, patted his leg and said, “Good job, Siah, you did it for them, now they don’t have to pick you up.” He raised his hand in the air and gave me 3 thumbs up. It brought the house down for me, his cousin, buddy, girlfriend, and the nurses that witnessed it. Ohhh, Siah we needed that. Thanks God for that sign of life and humor in him.”

Though there is great progress made each day, there is still a great road to be traveled for Josiah.  Here are some specific things to pray for:

• He seemed to be fairly calm for the most part today but please continue to pray that as he wakes up that confusion and irritation will be minimal, and instead that he will be filled with a peaceful and quiet spirit.  Many times a head trauma patient will be irrational and very irritated.
• Pray that he gains more control over the left side of his body.  He has plenty of strength, but does not squeeze or respond quite as well on that side.  This is expected because the brain injury is on the right side of the brain.  But I believe that being specific in this request will bring the specific answers we are looking for. It may take some time for that to happen, but I am asking for visible progress.
• Pray that the therapists will have wisdom as they plan a course of action for his recovery.  We do not know the level of rehab as of yet.  We will find out more of that over the next few days.
• Pray for my younger kids.  Joshua came to see his brother yesterday, and no matter how much I tried to prepare him, he was not prepared to see his big brother laying there like that.  The girls have not seen him and will not see him for several more days.  Also, pray for his older sister Jordan that she would be comforted as she is over 900 miles or so away.
• Pray for Jennifer and I to have patience.  We know God is in control, we count on that, but we want to see him healed!

Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart and tell about the wonders you have worked.”