Singing is good for the soul

Van’s brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and parents came to the hospital Sunday evening to sing to him. They sang hymns and songs the family sang when they were little. They sing four part harmony and Van sings bass. We had 18 of us all together in his ICU room. I had to get special permission but they said, anything that will help and inspire the patient is great.

We also received some wonderful visitors that gave him spiritual thoughts and encouraged him to fight. Van’s brother sat with him that night and he said by the next day that he saw DETERMINATION in his eyes.

He is on a ventilator (which is a tube down his throat) and it breathes for him. They have been tapering him off each day and hope to take it out tomorrow. That would be wonderful to have him talk again. Today I brought him a paper that says Pain – 1, Nausea – 2, Breathing – 3, Suction – 4, Write – 5, Call Wendy – 6, Sleep – 7, Hot/Cold – 8, Catheter – 9, Kiss/Hug – 10. Now all he has to do is hold up that many fingers and I know what he wants.

Today they took out his central line (that had three ports) because it was infected with staph infection. They put in a picc line in each arm with two ports a piece. He also has a peripheral line so he has five lines going into him. His body is eating up the platelets like they are candy so now he has one line for continuous platelets. They are trying to match platelets to his blood type so that maybe he might not need as many.

The conference talk from Elder Dallin H. Oaks called “Healing the Sick” talked about--healing the sick by medical science, by prayers of faith, and by priesthood blessings. We have definitely used all the medical science available (even experimental drugs), every one of us are praying in faith and we have received many priesthood blessings. So now it is up to the Lord to do the rest.