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Friday, June 30, 2004 12:31 AM CDT

Friday, June 11, 2004 2:23 PM CDT

The service for Jennifer will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 26th at:

St Francis Cemetery
2033 N 48th St, Phoenix, AZ
602-267-1329
It should last less than an hour.


There will also be a celebration that evening at 6 p.m. at:

Embassy Suites
4400 S Rural Rd, Tempe, AZ
(Located at the southwest corner of Rural Rd. and US 60 freeway)
480-897-7444

All are welcome to attend either or both events.

There will be hors d’oeuvres served at the celebration and a cash bar will available. The evening will consist of sharing “Jen” stories (I know you each have a few),karaoke, and music. Please e-mail me your “Jen” stories. Some will be selected and read at the party. My e-mail address is stanrwilbur@yahoo.com. Additional photos and Jen memorabilia are welcome. If anyone has questions or needs directions to either event, feel free to e-mail me.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

Stan.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 11:40 AM CDT

Dear Friends,

The first awarding of the memorial schlarship was last night at McClintock High. $1000 was given to Marissa Mills-Chandler, a student who actually had Jen in freshman English. She won several honors and was a National Merit student. Jen would have approved. I got a little teary-eyed toward the end.

We want to thank you all who contributed to this fund. We have no way of knowing who all of you are, as there is no official record of the givers. There is enough money in the account for next year and some toward the year after also.

As near as I could tell, it is the only honor for the performing arts at the school.

We thank you all,

Jo

Monday, May 3, 2004 2:22 PM CDT

The service at St. Francis Cemetary is Saturday, June 26th at 9 a.m. All are welcome to attend. The wake will follow later that evening (around 6 p.m.). I have appreciated all of your constant prayers and thoughts which have no doubt helped ease the loss of Jennifer. Thank you all for the stories which you shared on the site. They continue to bring comfort to all of us.
Stan.

Thursday, April 29, 2004 6:03 PM CDT

I started writing this at 4 am Arizona time today. I awoke with the thought that those of you who were not able to attend the visitation or the funeral mass might want to know what occurred. It has taken me most of the day to get it to this point.
None of us were looking forward to the visitation. We are all reluctant to be public with our emotions. I was afraid that I would be turned into a simpering puddle in the middle of the floor. Somehow, that did not happen and I believe that we all made it through the evening without embarrassing ourselves.
While we do not have an exact count, I would estimate that a couple of hundred people showed up for the visitation and rosary. I know that we overwhelmed the air conditioning a couple of times. Both the Haran and the Wilbur clans used the occasion as a mini family reunion. We were also able to see a number of old friends that we do not see often enough. Each of us commented about the number of people in attendance that we did not know but who knew Jen. It was very uplifting for all of us.
I had asked Deacon Dick Petersen to lead us in the rosary. Because of the number of non-Catholics in attendance, he recommended that we do a scriptural rosary. This modifies the traditional rosary by reading a few words of scripture between each prayer. It was beautiful. The event that we dreaded turned put to be uplifting for all of us. I hope all who attended felt the same way.
The funeral mass at St Timothy was a beautiful faith filled experience. The funeral coordinator at St Timothy is a lady named Diane Smaw. There is nobody better at what she does.
Bishop Olmsted, the Bishop of Phoenix honored us by saying the mass. Celebrating with him were; Msgr. Dale Fushek, Msgr. Richard Moyer, Msgr. Ed Ryle, Fr. Carlos Gomez, Fr. Gerry LaPatka, Fr. Thomas Zurcher and Fr. Gene O’Carroll. Deacon Don Crawford and Deacon Dick Petersen assisted them. There were between 400 and 450 people attending. It is difficult to explain to non-Catholics what comfort the mass brings to Catholics. I will not try. It was a beautiful mass that celebrated Jennifer’s life.
Jennifer’s ashes (Yes, Catholics may be cremated.) will be interred at St Francis Cemetery in Phoenix in about six weeks, after construction is finished. We will announce the date here when we have it. It is our plan to have some kind of party in Jen’s honor around that time. We will post more on that later as well.
For myself and for the Haran and Wilbur families I want to thank you for your generosity, your support and your prayers.

Monday, April 26, 2004 12:27 AM CDT

The scholarship is at Bank of America. You would ask for the Jennifer Haran Wilbur Memorial Scholarship and the number is 004657063959. The first award will be May 17. This is at the high shcool Jen taught and will be awarded to a senior going on in drama or music. Thanks to Suzi for setting this up.

We are planning to have a "wake" or party for Jen sometime probably in June. All are invited to sing or tell stories. Information will be posted here when we pick the time. Stan is setting this up.

I forgot to thank Laura and Jim and also Joel, and Laura. Thanks to all who have been praying and calling us to just check up on us. This does not yet seem real to me, even after two months of processing it. After spending a week sleeping in a chair, I have been sleeping a lot and trying not to think.

Her sister, Abby, and I found a story in a book called "crossings" that my cousin Dave's wife, Lynn, sent to me. We wanted to share it.

"Appointment in Samarra" by W.Somerset Maugham

A servant in the marketplace was startled to see Death there, and ran back to his mater in panic. "I saw Death in the marketplace, who made a gesture at me. I know that he has come for me. Give me a horse that I may flee to Samarra. He will not find me there." The mater gave him a horse, and he rode to Samarra. The master then went to teh marketplace where he saw Death and spoke to him:

"why did you make a gesture at me servant and so frighten him?" And Death replied, "I made no gesture to him. I was merely startled to see him here in the marketplace, for I have an appointment with him today in Samarra.."

(silence)

Death cannot be fled.
Death will not be ignored.
Death is interwoven with life.
And over and over again
Christ looks at us with
Easter eyes
and says
"Do not be aftaid.
Do not be afraid."

Love,
Jo

Friday, April 23, 2004 7:44 PM CDT

Visitation with family will be on Tuesday April 27, 2004 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at Lakeshore Mortuary 1815 South Dobson, Mesa AZ 85202.

Funeral mass will be Wendsday, April 28 at 10:00 am at St Timothy Catholic Community 1730 W Guadalupe Rd, Mesa AZ 85202. A reception in the church will follow the mass.

In lieu of flowers, we are requesting donations be made to Caringbridge.org, Hospice of the Valley or to the Scholarship fund which is being set up in Jennifer's name. We will provide information about the scholarship fund later.

Friday, April 23, 2004 10:35 AM CDT

Jennifer died this morning at 3:22 am, Arizona time. She was pronounced at 3:37 am. She went peacefully. Her husband, mother, father, sister and high school friend Kim were with her.

We will announce the arrangements here, as soon as they are made.

Thank you all for you love, support and prayers.

Thursday, April 22, 2004 6:09 PM CDT

Jen is comfortable. She has never awakened during this entire time since Feb 18. She looks remarkably well. She is never alone. Her sister, husband, and mom have spent every night with her in her room. Sometimes dad and Kim, her best friend from high school, have been there too. It makes for a very interesting arrangement of beds and chairs in the small space.

Thanks to a number of people.....Amy, Jo and John, Suzi, Jan and Tammy, all family on both sides, and belated thanks to Keith. There are, of course, many more.

Fever has returned, up to 105 last night. She has a vapor producing machine in the room to ease her breath. This am, we burned it out. I went to get the nurse when it seemed to turn itself off, and she unplugged it minutes before it could catch fire. The smell was terrible. Wouldn't that have been in true Jen style?

There was a harpist that came to volunteer play music yesterday. We got her to come down to Jen's room and play especially for her. Jen always wanted to learn to play the harp. The lady had a beautiful voice and I expected Jen to burst into song with her at any minute.

Love, Jo

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 12:33 AM CDT

We are still in our bedside watch with Jennifer. There are certain numbers that we watch that give us some indication of what is going on. Those numbers go up and down over time like a wave. In a sense, her health is working against her. She has a strong heart. That is what is keeping her going. Like all things this will happen in God's time.

Thank you for your prayers and continued messages of support.

Sunday, April 18, 2004 10:51 PM CDT

Friday The Haran and Wilbur families gathered at Hospice. Msgr Dale Fushek, our pastor and friend, arrived and annointed her. For those of you who are not Catholic, we used to call it Last Rites. The medical people came in when we were done. We left except for Msgr. He stayed with her. The ventalator was unhooked. Jen started breathing on her own for the firs time in 2 months. Her breathing was shallow but steady. The doctor told us that she would most likely last only a few hours. The doctor was wrong. Jen is still with us but her condition is getting worse. The last two days have been very difficult for all of us. Family and friends have stopped by to pay their respects to Jen and to buck up our spirits. These visits are greatly appreciated.

Throughout the last two days, Jennifer has rested well. She has seemed more at peace than any time since the accident. This evening, her breathing has become more irregular and shallow. She has developed an upper respiratory infection; probably pneumonia. She has a temperature of 103. She is given medicine to make her comfortable and continues to rest well.

Please keep her and all of us in your prayers.

Friday, April 16, 2004 1:12 PM CDT

Yesterday, a bed opened up in hospice. Jen has a lovely single room in a very nice setting. We plan on removing the ventilator tonight at 8:00 pm Arizona time. The doctor told us that she would probably last only a few hours. I will post an update sometime tomorrow.
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked how a merciful God could do this to Jennifer. She is a wonderful young woman who does not deserve this. I have given that question a lot of thought as I have driven back and forth to the hospital and now to hospice. God did not do this to Jen. What happened to Jen happened because it is in the nature of things. When God made the world, it came with certain rules of nature. Those rules apply to all of us regardless of the merits of our personalities. If I drink a glass of poison thinking that it is tea, I will die, regardless of how good or bad I may be. It does not matter that I made a mistake. Poison kills. If you drink it, you die. Similarly, if I pull my car out in front of an oncoming speeding car, there will be an accident. It does not matter that I could not see the other car or that the other driver could not see me in time. Those are the rules of nature. Mother Nature is God’s chief of staff; a cold heartless enforcer of the rules.
Could there be a miracle? Could God intervene and change the outcome? Yes there could be and yes He could. Will He? Probably not. Doesn’t a person like Jennifer deserve a miracle? I think so. Every father thinks that his child deserves a miracle. So does every mother. That is why mothers and fathers do not get to make that decision. God gets to make it. It is the nature of miracles that they go against the rules of nature. A miracle is God overruling His chief of staff. If everybody were to get a miracle when they needed one, there would be no rules. There would be no consequences to our actions and the very nature of life would change for us. There can be no learning and no growth if there are no consequences. We would become like caged wild animals with all of our wants and needs taken care of, but totally unable to achieve our potential. Indeed, we would be unable to achieve anything. That is why God created the universe with these rules of nature and gave us a chief of staff to enforce them. He wants us to learn and grow. Even in this terrible tragedy of Jennifer’s accident, we see evidence of His love for us.
These thoughts have helped me get through this. I hope they help you as well.

Thursday, April 15, 2004 12:29 AM CDT

There is no good news. Last night we signed the paperwork to transfer Jennifer to hospice care. There should be a bed available within the next day or two. We are advised that she will likely not last very long after the agressive care is stopped. Indeed, it may be a matter of hours. I will keep you advised of what happens through this site.

If you have not done so already, plesas sign in at the guestbook and leave a story or rememberance about Jen. Her mother wants to have them.

As always, we welcome your prayers.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 12:39 AM CDT

The family will meet again tonight with the Hospice ladies to get more answers to our never-ending questions.

The "mom" in me is very sad, but we are trying to keep our visits at the hospital as upbeat as possible. Jen still looks like she is asleep and could wake at any moment. Her feet and hands are very dry, so I put on lotion every time I go and tell her she is having a little "spa" time. I can also do some of the physical therapy with her and I am making sure to move hands, feet, fingers, toes, legs, and arms. She is turned every 2 hours, day and night, so she does not have any bed sores.

We thank you for all prayers, good thoughts, support, and wishes. I am enjoying the stories you are sending.

Jo Haran

Monday, April 12, 2004 4:10 PM CDT

Jennifer's MRI was done last Thursday afternoon. We met with Dr. Marciano early Friday evening. He took us to a computer and showed us the CAT scans that Jen has had since her accident together with the just completed MRI. Even we could see the extensive damage that he was talking about. He recommended that a referral be made to hospice. A family decision was made to take that referral. We will be meeting with someone from hospice today.

Like us, I am sure that you have a thousand questions. The answer to most of them is that we do not know. We have no idea of how long Jen has. It could be a relatively short time or it could be a very long time. The doctors think that she will probably not last a year. but then they quickly say that they do not know. I will continue to post information as we get it.

Jennifer's mother (Jo) is asking for as many of you as possible to go to the guest book and sign in. We are astounded by how many of you we do not know. When you sign in, please favor us with any stories or events you recall about Jen. Jo wants to print them and save them.

Thank you for your prayers. Please keep them coming.

Thursday, April 8, 2004 11:28 AM CDT

Jen's condition remains unchanged. The only machines that she is hooked up to are the feeding tube device and the ventilator. Her lungs are clear. Her numbers are good. She remains in a coma. We are entering the eighth week after the accident.

The family met with Dr. Marciano, the neurosurgeon, last night. Like the doctors that we met with last week, he is not optomistic. He is not recommending that we authorize a shunt revision. He thinks it is likely that the shunt is operating as intended and that the reason that fluid appears to be building up is the result of softness and lack of pressure in Jen's brain. He also thinks that the reason that she is not waking up is because of the damage that the brain suffered in the accident and not the current pressure. For this reason, work on the shunt will not cause her to wake up. Before the decision is made on the shunt, he has ordered an MRI. We are not expecting the MRI to give us any good news, but we all agree that just having more information is a good thing.

As you can imagine, we are all extremely distressed. Please continue to pray for us as you continue to pray for Jennifer.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 4:29 PM CDT

There is no new news. We are still waiting to meet with the remaining doctor.

Jo Haran

Monday, April 5, 2004 8:27 AM CDT

Jennifer continues to improve her performance on the breathing machine. The next step would be to start to wean her from it. That decision is based on whether there will be stunt revision surgery. We are waiting to hear from Dr Marciano on that issue. He has been out of town for a week. He is back. We hope to hear from him today or tomorrow.

The only machines that Jen is now hooked up to are the ventilator and the one that feeds her. She continues to get all of her nutrition through her feeding tube.

Please keep her in your prayers.

Thursday, April 1, 2004 11:10 AM CST

Jennifer's numbers continue to be good. We are seeing her eyes open more. She is over the pneumonia and has been taken off of the antibiotics. Her breathing continues to improve. The neurosurgeon will be evaluating Jen for a shunt revision in the next three to four days.

Thank you all for the many expressions of love and support we have received. Pleas continue to pray for us.

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:46 AM CST

I apologize to those of you who got the bad news about Jennifer as result of checking this page and not getting something personally from me. There are simply too many of you. Jennifer has had a relatively peaceful time recently. Her temperature is under control. Her feeding tube appears to be working perfectly. She is off the intravenous feeding and is getting all of her nutrition through the tube. They are still working on getting her off the breathing machine.

There is some question as to whether she will need to have some work done on the shunt which is not draining as well as it should. The neurosurgeon will not be able to make that call until Friday or Monday. Right now we don't know if repairing the shunt will have any benefit.

Thank you all for your many expressions of support. Please keep Jennifer and all of us in your prayers.

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:46 AM CST

I apologize to those of you who got the bad news about Jennifer as result of checking this page and not get something personally from me. There are simply too many of you. Jennifer has had a relatively peaceful time recently. Her temperature is under control. Her feeding tube appears to be working perfectly. She is off the intravenous feeding and is getting all of her nutrition through the tube. They are still working on getting her off the breathing machine.

There is some question as to whether she will need to have some work done on the shunt which is not draining as well as it should. The neurosurgeon will not be able to make that call until Friday or Monday. Right now we don't know if repairing the shunt will have any benefit.

Thank you all for your many expressions of support. Please keep Jennifer and all of us in your prayers.

Monday, March 29, 2004 3:14 PM CST

I tried to give you an update early this morning. However, we had some server problems this morning and the update got fried. I will do it again and add what I learned this morning.

Jen's weekend was uneventful. She has developed a rash which is probably caused by an allergy. They are working to find out what caused the rash. Her temperature seems to be under control. She was actually a little below normal for much of the weekend. Her blood gasses, white count and sugar levels were good. She has not awakened.

On Friday we got a call that the doctors wanted to meet with the family this morning at 10. As you may guess, family meetings with the doctors are not normally done to relay good news. We had a restless, tearful and prayerful weekend. The news was not good. It is not likely that Jennifer will survive this accident. We are not being asked to make any decisions yet, but we are having family discussions so that we will be prepared when we have to. I am not going to go into the details of what we were told because I want to protect Jennifer's privacy and, frankly, because the whole matter very difficult to deal with. I will say that the injury to Jennifer's brain was far worse than we had hoped.

We are all a bit in the dumps right now. Your continued prayers for us and for Jen are needed and appreciated.

Friday, March 26, 2004 9:18 AM CST

This is another mom page. Mike could not get to his computer yesterday to update, but that does not mean bad news. In fact, good news. Jen opened 1 eye for a while several times. We did get to see this wonderful event at about 6 pm, after hearing that the nurse had seen it previously in the day. Jen did not open because she was asked or coaxed to, but because she was annoyed into opening by her nurse. The nurse, our hero, told red-headed Jennifer jokes to her and generally just bothered her. She did not seem really "with it", but the eye definately was open.

The fevers seem to be down-gone...time will tell.

The breathing progresses and the feeding progresses, both slowly.

With love,
Jo

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 8:20 AM CST

Stan put some pictures of Jen in the photo section of the site. You can see them by clicking below.
A problem developed with the feeding yesterday. The staff misread the instructions from the doctor. The rate I reported yesterday was too fast. The increase caused residuals to build up. They have corrected the flow, but we are back to a slower rate of 30.
Jen seemed to have a good day with her temperature yesterday. Please pray that it continues.
The shunt may not be working properly. We are trying to speak with the doctors to see if that is the case and to find out what, if anything, can be done.
Please keep praying. That is the one thing that can really make a difference.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 8:09 AM CST

Thank you, Montreal. The warmth of your spirit and your generousity are overwhelming.
They continue to work on getting Jen off of the ventilator. She continues to breath on her own with just an assist from the machine.
She still has some pneumonia. Antibiotics are fighting it.
Jen's temperature continues to be a problem. Once again they used ice and Tylanol to bring it down.
Her feeding through the tube continues to improve. The doctor changed the order yesterday. The amount of supplement that is being put in is being increased by 5 ccs every other hour until they get to 80. They check for residuals to make sure she is tolerating it well. If we can get the supplement up to 80, they can take her off of the IV solution. (It looks like Gatorade.)
Another CAT scan was ordered yesterday. A neurologist has been brought in for a consult. We should know something about what they find today.

Monday, March 22, 2004 8:24 AM CST

Sorry, People, Mike is back. I really need somebody else to tell me what a wonderful job Jo did with the update Friday, how fresh it was,etc. etc. As if she wasn't already hard enough to live with.
We had some mixed news over the weekend. Jen continues to improve with her breathing. She now initiates every breath, with the respirator just giving her an assist with the volume when she needs it. At one point Jen's volume was so high that the nurse commented that it was the kind of volume they see with a large husky male. I guess all that singing helped.
She continues to have problems with her temperature. She spiked to 103.9 this weekend. This problem may be a result of the neurological injury. They are not sure. They continue to try to fight it with Tylenol and ice. We bought her a fan. That may help.
Her feeding through the tube continues to improve. Yesterday the doctor increased the volume to 40 which is half way to where they want to go. They do not see any residuals, which is good.
She still has some pneumonia. But that condition continues to improve. Her blood gasses and white count are good.
We are ablolutely convinced that it is your prayers that have kept her with us. Please continue to pray for her recovery.

Friday, March 19, 2004 10:42 AM CST

Mike is out of his office today, so mom will attempt the update!

Jen was doing very well breathing entirely on her own yesterday. The respirator was attached to give her oxygen, but the breaths were hers.

The bad news is that she still has fever and it went to 102 by 5 pm. They had ice on her to bring it down and gave Tylenol. I know Jen would not like the ice part. Maybe this will make her the "ice godess".

She is still hooked up to a lot of misc. meds. Just for fun, we asked about the cost of all of this. Of course, the insurance will be taking care of things, but the meds alone so far are $118,000. It seems to me that she should be having a lot more fun that she is for $118,000 of drugs.

She looks pretty good. I don't know if you know, but her face was not at all bruised or cut up. She looks like she is asleep, but having the worst hair day of her life.

The feeding tube is increased slightly-a good thing. I have seen every part of her move, so there is no loss there.

She has some odd kind of hospital shoes on her so that the heels of her feet will not get bed sores. They look like those Eskimo things. So far, no bed sores anywhere.

We are playing music CDs for her and she has a TV in the room. We talk to her constantly and we think she hears us as her blood pressure goes up, breathing goes up, etc, and she turns her head slightly. We think the twitch at the side of her mouth might be a smile as it seems to happen at the appropriate time.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Jo

Thursday, March 18, 2004 11:59 AM CST

Although she remains in a coma, Jen had a pretty good day yesterday. Her temperature remained in the normal range. She seems to be tolerating the nutrition through the feeding tube so that they were able to slightly increase the flow. Her ventilator rate had to be increased to 4, but that may have been the result of the movement between floors.
Please continue to pray for her

Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:39 AM CST

Jennifer was moved out of ICU last night. She is now in room 310. There are still restrictions on visitors. She has a bacterial infection that has resulted in her being is isolation. Only famly may visit and we must gowned, masked and gloved. They have identified the bacterium that is causing the problem. It has a name that I can neither pronounce or spell.
Jen's breathing continues to improve. Her ventilator was set at only 2 breaths per minute yesterday and she was doing well.
Her stomach seems to be starting to process the food that is put in through the tube. The doctor said he was going to try to increase the flow today. The flow will remain very slow, but it is an improvement.
Please do not send flowers. Jen is in no condition to appreciate them. If you want to do something, have a Mass said for her recovery or make a contribution to Caringbridge. This organization provides this website for free. It is a wonderful service and should be supported.
Please continue to pray for Jennifer's recovery.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 8:24 AM CST

The surgery to install the shunt was done yesterday afternoon. Dr Marciano reports that it went well. He does not feel that the shunt installation is a setback. Lots of people have them. He thinks that it is better to install it now than it would be to do it after she wakes up. It gives Jen less to worry about.
There is a chance that the pressure from the fluid that the shunt will relieve may increase the chances for Jen to wake up. There may have been pressure onthe sleep center of the brain. We will wait and see.
Jen continues to have problems with her temperature. They seem to be working constantly to either bring it down or keep it down.
Jen's breathing seems to continue to improve. She did very well with it yesterday.
Thank you all for the many expressions of affection and support. Please do not stop praying for her. We have a long way to go.

Monday, March 15, 2004 8:21 AM CST

We had some ups and downs over the weekend. Jen's ventrics are retaining fluid. A shunt is necessary. It will be put in today, probably this afternoon. The shunt will allow the excess fluid to drain into her abdominal cavity.
Jen's breathing seemed to improve over the weekend. She is doing a lot of breathing on her own and they appear to be good breaths. We are hoping to get her less and less reliant on the ventilator. She will be breathing with some kind of device through her throat until after she wakes up and is able to clear her own airway.
Because we had normal bowel sounds, we hoped that there would be better success with the feeding tube. Very small amounts of nutrition were put in, but they are not being well processed. She was given some medication to assist the digestive process. We are waiting to see how that works.
One eye remains fixed and dialated. There was some nerve damage on that side. The other eye is sluggish.
We are still having trouble keeping her temperature down. She was as high as 101. Tylanol and fans seem to help.
We are advised that all of her blood gasses are good.
PLEASE KEEP JEN IN YOUR PRAYERS.

Friday, March 12, 2004 8:13 AM CST

Today, like most days, has a mix of good and not so good news. Jen now has normal bowel sounds. They have been trying to feed her through a tube since it was installed about a week ago. Her body did nothing to process it and the food had to be pumped out. With normal bowel sounds they hope that she will now start processing the food. They started feeding her again yesterday. We will see what happens.
She is still having problems with spikes in temperature. She was at 102 for a while yesterday. I understand that they now believe that it may be caused by a yeast that has gotten into her system. They started her on a new medication for it yesterday.
Jen's ventilator was set a 6 breaths a minute yesterday. that is good. For a good part of the day she was breathing at 20. That means that 14 breaths were on her own. Later in the day her respiration and heartbeat were high. Everything is on a rollercoaster.
Her CAT scan was read but there is still no decision on whether she will have to have a shunt. We pray she will not.
Her eyes remain the same. Her mother continues to ask you for special prayers that Jen's eyes start to respond to light.
Please keep the prayers coming.
We are having computer problems at home. So unless I can get to a computer over the weekend there will probably not be another update until Monday morning.

Thursday, March 11, 2004 10:23 AM CST

Jennifer's sister has chastized me for not doing an update yesterday. Sorry.
Jennifer has been having trouble with a fever. The doctors were having trouble finding the source of the infection. They decided to replace the PICC line that was in her arm. That was cultured and they found a fungus. They gave her some fungicide and continued with antibiotics. Her teemp was normal for most of yesterday.
The pneumonia seems to be resolving. Her lungs are not clear but they are better.
A CAT scan was done on Saturday that indicated that a shunt in her head would not be necessary. They are doing a second CAT scan today to confirm that. We are very hopeful that it will not be necessary.
Her jaundice seems to be be better.
She is experiencing some involuntary movement that looks like she is shrugging. Dr Marciano said that this may be an indication that the nervous system is waking up. We have to wait and see.
Her pupils remain a problem. One is fixed and dialated. The other is sometines sluggish and sometimes fixed. The Dr is not overly concerned but does wish that there was more movement. Jen's Mom asks that you say a special prayed that we see some response in Jen's eyes.
Within the next day or so Jen will be evaluated for possible movement out of ICU.
PLEASE KEEP PRAYING.

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 9:35 AM CST

Jennifer came down with pneumonia over the weekend. It started with a sinus infection. We believe it is under control. Yesterday she had a fever in the 103 range. They had the devils own time getting it down. This morning it was at 99.
The CAT scan of her brain looks pretty normal. Dr. Marciano can see no reason why she does not wake up. It may have something to do with the infection she is fighting. They are going to do an ultrasound on her gall bladder to see there is a problem there.
Please continue to pray for her.

Monday, March 8, 2004 8:21 AM CST

Jen remains in a coma. She does some movement and responds to painful stimulus. She had her stiches out on Friday. Dr Marciano, the neurosurgeon, said that he thought that we were starting to come together. There is no way to predict when, if ever she will wake up or how much of her will remain if she does wake up. We all continue to request your prayers and support. Her recovery is in God's hands.

Friday, March 5, 2004 5:01 PM CST

Yesterday, Jen had the last tube, called a ventric, removed from her head. She remains in a coma. We are hopeful that she will come around soon. Please keep her in your prayers.
I saw her today at noon. Her condition is pretty much unchanged. She has a sinus infection which is being treated with antibiotics.

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