Update #58 - All's Quiet on the Cleveland Front

Jill and Sophia got to spend the day in Cleveland with Trent yesterday, and things seem calm. Lunch and a field trip with his girls (to the hospital's McDonald's) was certainly a welcome break after a week of doctors and nurses.

Testing continues as Trent prepares to go back on the transplant list. As he keeps pushing, he asks that you be praying for:

Peace
Comfort
Understanding

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort..."

Update #57 - Progress

So much good news! Trent is out of ICU and in a regular room. His oxygen level and heart rate are both good, and Jill and the kids were able to talk with him tonight. He was even nagging Jill about some appointments she needed to cancel - showing some of his Coach Todd motivation, I guess.  :-)

When Trent arrived in Cleveland, the doctors found some blood clots in his lungs - before you panic, it sounded scary to me too, but they put him on a blood thinner, and nobody seems overly anxious. The clots actually help to explain why Trent was having a hard time breathing on Friday and why he is feeling better today.

Things are still moving toward a second transplant, but for now, Trent is breathing okay, talking, sleeping at night, and under the best possible care that he could be. As Jill said in her most recent text to me, "God is good." Keep praying!

Update #56 - Getting Settled

Trent made it safely to Cleveland last night and is getting settled. Currently, he is in the ICU for monitoring, but he will be transferred to the Heart/Lung Unit soon. Less than a day since the decision to go back to Cleveland, and already, he is doing much better.

Jill is in Cleveland with Trent and will decide whether to stay or head back to Cincinnati once everything is calm. Bryce and Sophia both got to stay busy serving at the food pantry this morning and are enjoying the rest of the day with friends.

Pray for a quiet weekend and a smooth transfer out of the ICU. For the time being, no news is once again good news.

Update #55 - Return to Cleveland, Return to the Blog

In a world where no news is good news, the reappearance of this blog page is not a welcome sight.

Late this past spring, Trent picked up what for most of us would be a minor cold but for him was an automatic threat to his new lungs. Over the past few months, in spite of changes in medications, inpatient treatments and trial therapies in Cleveland, the cold has set off a chain reaction that has caused a steady decline in his lung function and his overall health. For anyone who has seen him in the past few weeks especially, this information is only a confirmation of what you already know.

As I type, Trent and Jill are headed back to Cleveland Clinic after a particularly difficult day, week and month. While treatments have been (and will be) continuing, Trent's doctor, Dr. Budev, has also begun the testing necessary to present him to the Transplant Board for a second transplant. As it was the first time around, the process is long and arduous, and the result is not guaranteed.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Dr. Budev and her team have been with Trent from the beginning and have been hands-on (meaning Dr. Budev has done his bronchoscopies herself, something she would normally pass on to an intern) since day one. Trent and Jill are part of their family, and the team has been fighting with and for Trent as much as each of us has been inspired to fight because of who Coach Todd is.

2. For most lung transplant recipients, episodes of what is called "acute rejection" (the situation Trent's cold set off) normally happen within the first six months after receiving new lungs; Trent was almost completely healthy for TWO YEARS! While this news is incredible, is also has his transplant team at a loss for how to handle his very rare situation, especially because of how quickly it has progressed.

3. Trent and Jill have been very forthcoming with Sophia and Bryce, and the whole family has had a phenomenal support system in place all along. Hopefully this post will serve only to re-expand that network.

We will have more information once Trent arrives in Cleveland, but for the time being, please kickstart your prayers again. I'll update as we know more.