A Good Day for Rest

Monday – January 12, 2009
By: Tom Determan

Not much happened today medically or otherwise with the exception of one very exciting thing, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Andy is steadily doing better and those of us who are fortunate enough to witness the healing power of a wonderful God are certainly blessed.

Many nurses are truly amazed at the speed of his recovery and have commented about Andy’s continued progress. Of course, we attribute that to much prayer, praise & worship to our mighty God. For example, there are a number of CD’s from which we have the choice to play softly in the room, but the one that gets played with automated repetition is a worship CD by Phillips, Craig & Dean. It has a way of permeating the hospital room with an awesome holy presence, especially during the nighttime hours.

Now regarding prayers being answered, here is something that I trust will richly bless you. Tonight a special visitor stopped by Andy’s room to give us a praise report. Can you guess who that might be? Yep, it was Sheree, Andy’s nurse from a few nights ago. She made a special trip to let us know that her husband has already agreed to go to a drug rehabilitation center and get free from drugs. Hopefully, he’ll find a good Christian rehab center that will emphasize the spoken Word.

Do you know of a Christian rehab in the Lakeland/Tampa Bay area? If so, please make a post to let us know where it is and we’ll pass the information on to Sheree.

Immediately after she left the room, I asked Andy one question, “How did that make you feel being used by God to touch her life?” He thought it was pretty neat.

Well, I believe more people are coming and when they do, I pray we’ll be ready to speak a perfect word in season into their life in Jesus name.

The Week-end or Strong-end... (we prefer the latter)

Saturday/Sunday: January 10th-11th, 2009
By: Tom Determan

A Time for Friends & Pictures

Saturday and Sunday were really good days for Andy, mostly because friends were finally able to visit, which ultimately helped lift his spirits quite a bit. Praise God for faithful and good Christian friends who will take up one another’s burdens according to Galatians 6:1. God is so GOOD!

Janna & I are very blessed to see the hand of God at work in Andy, and as mentioned in previous posts, we are very grateful to everyone who has lifted us up during this amazing time of remarkable grace.

Also, we want to thank everyone who has prepared & brought food (dinner) to us. Every night the meals continue to get better & better. A special thank you to Elizabeth May & Carrie Henry for orchestrating this endeavor enabling us to stay focus on Andy's needs.

Now back to the photos... we decided to create a photo journal for Andy as a powerful way to help remind us how good our God is. As new visitors came on Saturday & Sunday, I took photos of them and Andy together, with Andy doing his best to be photogenic.

Hopefully, someday we’ll get to share them with you, but for now we are going to stay focused on our faith, until Andy gets the connection he needs. We will tarry until our faith becomes sight, and our faith speaks that Andy will walk, run and play sports better than ever, but with renewed purpose.

A Time to Minister -- A Higher Purpose

Something very cool happened the other night that I forgot to mention earlier. On Thursday evening /Friday morning, a couple of nurses came into Andy’s room. One of them is a singer at our church named Sarah. She just stopped by to check on Andy’s progress and to say hi to Sheree, a fellow co-worker.

Well, Sheree just happened to pick up a shift that night and was assigned to Andy. Shortly after Sarah had left, Sheree opened up her heart and spoke to us about her husband who was on drugs and needed to be set free. We all held hands & prayed together believing God for His conviction power to touch her husband and ultimately set him free from the power of sin & death.

Afterward, Andy told me that he saw people lined up and ready to come for the same thing. Good & I believe it! Because time is short and people need to be set free from the powers of darkness in the name of Jesus! The enemy overplayed his hand on this family unit (the Determan's & Family Worship Center) and now as a result, I believe we will see the fruit of many souls come into the kingdom of God.

My son, who is lying in a Trauma Intensive Care Unit (TICU) bed, has ministered to a wonderful nurse who has a real need. After we prayed, Andy spoke into her life and her response was, “I know the words you are speaking are from God,” …Wow, Glory to God!!

Those were the most beautiful words I've every heard someone speak over Andy, of course that is from a parents perspective!

As you know, this tragedy is one the enemy meant for evil, but God is already using for His glory.

So, even while standing at my sons’ bedside, I am praising & worshiping my God, believing Him for His miracle working power to manifest and the entire time it is already at work... getting ready to move like we have never seen before.

Friday was the First Day for Real Food… Finally!

Friday: January 9, 2009
By: Tom Determan

Once again, before I go any further, I want to give a big thank you to everyone who has been praying and standing strong with us believing that Andy would be well enough to get to breathe on his own without a trach. Every day we have seen the hand of God move mightily, strengthening Andy’s body in various ways.

After having been off the ventilator for a full day, Andy is ready to eat some real food. It has been nearly eleven days since his last meal of solid food. On Friday afternoon, the nurses brought in hospital food for the first time, but needless to say, it didn’t pass the taste test -- whatsoever. This was most likely due to the vast amount of med’s he’s been on throughout this incredible ordeal.

Dinner time was quickly approaching and per Andy’s request, Mom & Dad went to a new restaurant in town called Five Guys Burgers & Fries. Of course, this way he knew he could get a really good “ole fashioned” hamburger & fries meal.

Burger & Fries – The Hospital Room Delivery

As soon as we returned to the room with food, it took all of 30 seconds for Andy to begin eating & as you can imagine, it was hard to put the hamburger down. Unfortunately for his taste buds, he was only able to take a few bites and then, was too full to eat any more. Actually, Andy said the “leftover” portion tasted better than the first. Mom & Dad are just thankful for his renewed appetite for real food, seeing day by day the miracle of restoration.

Andy’s Special Request

Now, after having regained his cognitive abilities once again, Andy has requested $5.00 – $10.00 gift cards to various local eating establishments. So, if you want to do something extra special for Andy and help lift his spirits, this would be kinda cool.

God Bless all of our family members, church family members and of course all of Andy’s friends who are taking time to read this truly amazing Miracle Life Journey blog. Please reflect with us (his Mom & Dad) on God’s goodness for sparing Andy’s life; allowing for many more days of blessing & life to occur.

UPDATED!!!!!!

The Ventilator is OUT!!!!!! Praise God!!! The doctors came in this morning around 530 and lowered the pressure on the ventilator to see how his body responded. But 1230pm mom was calling me to say that the doctors were in the process of removing it!!!! YEAH!!!!

Andy was so excited that he talked and talked and talked, even though he was hoarse! He talked so much that he felt dizzy after a while! But that's Andy for you!!! Thank you everyone for praying!

Today's verse is Matthew 9:2-7 with an emphasis on 7. Daddy asks if everyone could read these verses and then pray them over Andy! We've been doing daily scripture and I'm going to begin to put them on here as well!

Calling all prayer warriors!!!

I just got off the phone with mom with an update on Andy. She said that the doctors are going to try getting him off the ventilator tomorrow morning. IF that does not work, then they are going to place a Trach in him along with a Peg Tube (feeding tube). He won't be on either of those for very long, but the point is we don't want him on either of them AT ALL!!! So guys we need to pray! Pray that his body and levels respond appropraitely and that they doctors won't have to put anything more in him! Tubes are just plain nasty! So tonight we all need to pray! Please Pass this along to everyone!

The last few days (1/3 - 1/6)

The last few days (and the next few days) we've been taking everything step by step, one thing at a time. The doctors have been testing him every so often to see how strong his lungs are in order to come off the ventilator. Every time he gets better and better. so keep praying that his body will respond appropriately and will be strong enough to come off of it!

As of Sunday, he has been on a different sedation medication. so he has been more alert and has begun to understand where he is and why. He has also been able to have his arm restraints untied when family is in there with him!! Now he can actually scratch his own face!

Beginning yesterday (Monday), Physical Therapy will be working with him 3x a week. Last night Mom was massaging his forearms and dad was working on his calves. Mom stepped out for a moment and when she did, he looked up at me and held his hand out to do some exercises. he did all of his upper body exercises he was supposed to without any assistance (besides me holding his hand for support). after he finished every time we would give me a thumbs up saying he did it! He's so smart and such a fighter! I'm so proud of him!

Today, he's begun to write. It's sloppy but it's able to be read. It has been so frustrating to try and figure out what he's trying to say with a 26 letter alphabet! his fingers don't always land on the letter he's meaning and pictures don't help a bit!

That's it for now. Stay tuned!


P.S. Thank you to EVERYONE who have been praying! A miracle has been taking place in a young man's life and every single person who has lifted him up in prayer has been apart of it! So keep praying! There's something on the inside working on the outside, oh what a change in His life!!!!

P.S.S. Please feel free to leave comments! My family and I will be printing these out and reading any comments left for Andy or about him! It will be very uplifting and help with his recovery!!!

The Miracle Itself (1/2/09)

Dad went to the accident scene with my brother, uncle and a close friend to see what they could figure out what happened.

First of all, this was purely an Accident!! No one was at fault! From what they could tell by looking at the car and the scene, he was going the speed limit initially but then his foot got stuck (he wears HUGE tennis shoes) and he accelerated to roughly 70-80 mph. He lost control of the car, jumped the median and hit a tree. Somehow during all of this the car turned so that the passenger side was facing the tree. So where the tree hit the car it saved his life because it ended up hitting the back passenger door, spun around the tree about 270 degrees and just stopped.
The thing is, there are a million different things that could have happened, but didn't! This entire time God truly had his hand on my little brother. A few inches to the left and the car would have flipped. A few inches to the right and his head would have taken the blow of the tree. A few feet either way would have sent him into ongoing traffic. So you see, it's a miracle it happened the way it happened. God truly saved his life! And by seeing all of these things unfold, we all can see how strong of a calling he really has on his life. Satan is NOT going to win this battle!

The Surgery (1/1/09)

Happy New Year everyone! Today was Andy’s surgery. Dr. Camponelli told us it would last about 3-4 hours. They were supposed to go in clean out whatever debris and fix whatever they could. Because the results from the MRI were inconclusive, they didn’t know (and were probably expecting) if his spinal cord was in severed. Well, after 5 hours of waiting, Dr. Camponelli finally came out and gave us the news.
After opening him up, they discovered that his spinal cord was NOT severed!!! Praise God!!!! He said that it was only damaged on the right side!!! He also said that they were able to go in and fix his 6th and 7th vertebrae, clean up the area where bones may have chipped and place steel rods and screws to help him heal. So he’s all sewn up and tubed up for now but he’s healing quickly!

Family and friends (and lots of them)

This New Years Eve I will never forget. Along with everyone else, I had plans. But as soon as I heard the news I had to come back home and forget everything. One thing though I was reminded of was Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Who reminded me of that was Nathan. He and Krista were Andy’s first visitors. Nathan shed some light into an area of Andy’s life that we, his family did not know anything about. A few months ago a really good friend of Andy’s was involved in a car accident died. Ever since then he has been struggling on the inside about his relationship with God and where he stood. Nathan said that Andy came to him a few weeks before to talk to him about his relationship with God and for prayer. Another lady from the youth group, Mrs. Kim, who is a really close mentor to Andy, said that he has been speaking to her about getting back on the right track. So this boy has been making an effort. His heart is trying to get back to the right path. We, his family had no idea any of this was taking place. However, my parents have said that they have noticed a slight change in Andy recently.

Our prayers have been working! Many, many prayers have been offered up for this boy for many moths now. To the natural eye, no changes have happened. However, in the spiritual realm a major war has been taking place and the evidence of that war is starting to show. There is and has always been a divine calling on Andy’s life. I was talking to my dad a few weeks ago and he asked me if I knew why they named him Timothy Andrew. I said no. Dad said that he was named Timothy Andrew because he was going to be the preacher in the family. With everything that has taken place, Satan is working over time to destroy this man of God. However, the harder Satan works, the more powerful his testimony will be!

The Accident (12-30 – 12-31)

It was around 11:30 pm. Andy was gathering a few of his things to spend the night at his friend’s (Pat) house. He said goodbye to my parents and then headed out. It seemed as soon as Andy had walked out the door there was a knock on that door. It was Pat’s dad telling my parents to get to the hospital and that Andy had been in a car accident. On their way to the hospital, they saw the car. It was no more than 2 miles from the house. At that point in time, just by seeing the car and how damaged it was they didn’t know what to expect. They called Johnny and I telling us to start praying and to get our friends to start praying.

Around 3 in the morning, the ER doctor came to tell my parents the news. From what they knew at the time, Andy’s hope of ever walking again looked very bleak. The x-rays were so terrible that the doctor could not even bare to tell my parents. She said that it was something she has never seen before. His spinal cord looked severed, but the results were inconclusive. His 6^th and 7^th vertebrae were literally side-by-side instead of vertical, he had 3 fractured ribs on his right side, his heart and lungs were bruised, his noise was broken, fractured cheeks bones, and many, many scratches on his face and neck. However, Andy did not have any neurological damage or fractures in his skull – that is amazing!

Before receiving this horrific news from the doctor, the paramedics who took came to the scene found my parents and gave them their report. They said that on their way to the hospital Andy was talking, like he usually does, but he did not remembered what happened. The first thing he asked about was the car and if it were ok or else dad would be upset with him (the reason behind this was that we had just had the bumper repaired 2 weeks before). After that they kept talking to him until about a block away from the hospital when he said that his chest really began to hurt. One thing that my parents remembered, after the doctor gave them her report, was that the paramedics said that he was moving ALL of his limbs! That’s including his legs! So after the doctor mentioned that the results of his spinal cord was inconclusive, they remembered what the paramedics said and believed from that point on that he was going to be walking out of the hospital, and refused to believe anything less!

It was about 6:45 am that Andy was transferred to TICU (Trauma Intensive Care Unit). After the staff helped to settle Andy into his room, Dr. Camponelli came to speak to the family in depth on his injuries. He, just like the ER doctor, was disturbed at the results from the MRI taken of Andy’s spinal cord. He said it was like nothing he has ever seen before. He also said that they were going to wait to do surgery on his spinal cord until the next day because it wasn’t “urgent”. Without saying anything, he implied that Andy being able to walk again was a very, very slim chance.

He took my parents back to see the MRI, not 2 minutes went by and they were right back in the waiting room bursting into tears. Watching both on my parents sob like that was the hardest thing in the world. In that moment we stood right in the middle of was our midnight hour. There was nothing in the world that could have been done to make that moment any darker.

The next few hours consisted of crying, praying, and mediating along with making many, MANY phone calls.