Here's a picture of Tom Marler, Pam's son, as he worked away on his laptop keeping everyone informed as to how Kathy's sister - his mom, is doing.  Tom cannot be there every day, as he was for the first 3+ weeks, but I thought you might want to see who he is and read his last three updates (below the picture).  Thanks to each of you who are praying for Pam as God is saying 'Yes' to many of our requests!

           Tom Marler at work in his mom's hospital room, sending out updates!

7th April - 11:00 pm:  Tom Marler: I just arrived at the hospital. Before I got here mom had two visits from the theripist today and also was given a bath (which actually is used as a sort of therapy I hear). Needless to say she was very tired - but she was awake and able to move. There is a pretty noticeable difference in improvement since I was here last.

The first thing I noticed was that her movements with her arms are much quicker and steadeir than they were before. Previously she had to move her arms around by sliding them around the bed, only able to lift them for breif periods of time before resting them on the bed. Now, she can move her arms off the bed at a casual pace in one fluid movement - and this is when she is tired, so I can't wait to see her rested.

8th April -  12:10 am:  Tom Marler:   Word just in: our case manager informed us that mom will likely be ready for accute therapy in about a week. We are told it is about time to have mom move out of a hospital setting and she is to be moved as early as this Friday.

8th April - 6:00 am  Tom Marler:  I just heard from a nurse that they caught mom trying to use her strong arm to do a therapy excersize on her weak arm...completely on her own late last night! Also: I forgot to mention they removed the staples in her head either last night or this morning.

The picture below was taken 2 weeks ago (23rd March) and is in Pam's hospital room with Kathy and youngest brother Dan.

In the waiting room at Mercy hospital is (L to R) Steve Long (Kathy's brother), Mark Laughlin (our second son), Shirley Jager (Kathy's Mum) and Kathy.  We have spent lots of time in this room as well as in Pam's ICU room as we wait to see how things are going to go.

The past two days have been very encouraging as Pam is now more and more 'self contained' and free from heavy duty drugs that were needed to control blood pressure, from tubes draining fluids and relieving pressure, and many other things.  Pam is still in a coma, but does respond from time to time.  She has opened her eyes, moved both arms, both legs and moved her head up and down as well as side to side in response to questions.  All of this gives us hope that Pam is beginning to recover from this massive brain stem stroke.

We currently believe this recovery will go on for a long period of time, but we don't know yet how much of a recovery to expect.  We are so thankful for so many of you praying for a full recovery, as nothing is too hard for our God!  

As things stand today, we plan to fly out of San Francisco early on the 24th and arrive back in Dublin on the 25th.  We are looking forward to getting home as we miss all our Dublin friends and family.  Kathy and I want to thank everyone for such a tremendous outpouring of love and prayer support!

In case you have not heard, I am posting this update from Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California - Kathy's sister, Pam Marler (54) suffered a severe and completely unexpected stroke on Tuesday afternoon, 9th March.  She was flown to this hospital from the school where she teaches 8th grade history.

As of right now, Sunday - 3:30 pm, she has undergone 2 surgeries and we have been here with her since our flight landed on Thursday afternoon.  The doctors are waiting to see if she will be able to respond and/or breathe on her own.  When we left the hospital last night she could do neither.  This afternoon, however, we have been greatly encouraged as she has opened her eyes three or four times in response to a request by a nurse or doctor.  She has also moved her toes a few times, all of which are encouraging signs, and (I believe) very surprising to the doctor because of the massive nature of the stroke.

Please pray for Pam - that she will continue to show signs of improvement.  Pray that God will be honored in her and that the family will continue to experience His peace and strength.  Kathy and I plan to be here for at least another week to do what we can to help and to be close with the family.  We are able to stay with our son and daughter-in-law, Mark & Aubrey, who live about 20 minutes from the hospital.  The next few posts will, no doubt, be updates to this situation.