Hello, everyone,
Lea remains in stable condition this evening, as she enters the last few hours of administration of the “wonder drug” Xigris, a man-made form of a natural enzyme called Activated Protein C. It is used to treat severe/life-threatening infections in the blood (severe sepsis associated with acute organ failure). This medicine is what the medical staff calls “the big gun.” It can be taken only for four days, and Lea’s four days ends at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
What we are hoping for at this point is an improvement in Lea’s chances of recovering her health and quality of life. Last Thursday, Dr. Kirton put her chances of survival of lung failure at 30%, but he said that people DO recover from this condition. He wanted to try Xigris to see if it might be able to turn her around and improve her chances. He stated that the drug has been successful in some people, and might be what we need to help Lea.
Today, during our third day of treatment with the drug, Lea’s four-week long low-grade fever finally broke, and her temperature dropped to slightly below normal. The medication may have located and destroyed the elusive infection that caused her temperatures. For the first time in five weeks, she doesn’t have a cooling fan blowing directly on her to help keep her temperature down.
That is an improvement. Also, her lungs are showing very small indications that some healing is going on. The oxygen levels have been able to be reduced to 45% and her blood oxygen is staying good. The chest X-ray taken today shows some general pneumonia throughout the lungs, and a procedure planned for tomorrow to suction the lungs should clear much of the fluid loosened by the antibiotics.
Her blood pressure continues to be very good. The medication that she had been receiving for blood pressure support periodically for the past four weeks is no longer on stand by. Her skin, one of the earliest indicators of general health problems continues to be excellent. It is shiny and supple, though puffy from the fluid being retained in her system to fight her ailments.
Dr. Kirton plans to inspect her abdominal wound Monday to make sure that she continues to make progress in recovering from her surgeries. He may also decide to close her wound if it is healing as well as it had in the past and other problems remain stable. He has also committed to advising us tomorrow evening what her medical condition is, and what his recommendations are going forward.
He has agreed to advise us if conditions change unfavorably for a complete physical and mental recovery. At this point, the staff feels there is no reason what so ever to doubt that Lea has 100% of her mental capacity, and that if we can overcome the medical issues we’re dealing with, she will be able to return to a normal life after completing physical rehabilitation. During that rehabilitation period we will do everything possible to make her quality of life as good, if not better than, it was before.
People survive acute pancreatitis, and, I am asking God to make Lea one of those who completely recuperate. (He is in the business of working miracles, and we’ve seen plenty worked here already.) As long as there is a reasonable hope for a complete recovery, it only seems appropriate for us to proceed. If that reasonable hope should be lost to us, we will have to consider other actions.
I appreciate your many kind comments, your questions and suggestions, and your kind wishes and prayers. Our entire family has been truly blessed to have your support to help us through this illness, and we want you to know how much you are appreciated. You have given us courage and strength to go forward, in His name, where others may have faltered and failed in similar circumstances.
I can only tell you that, at the end of the day, I have an abiding love for my darling wife, and hope that God will grant us more time together. If it takes beating very difficult odds over a period of months, reshaping my personal life to be available for her, helping her as she struggles to rehabilitate her body, helping her dress, pushing her in a wheelchair, or whatever else is needed,
I pray for that chance.
Glory to God,
Larry
Surviving God's Woodshed 
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March 28, 2007 at 10:09 am
Pray-ers
DAY THIRTY-SEVEN
FROM: Stan
Aug 21 @ 1:26 AM
Hello Larry, I have been deeply moved by these updates, and have been forwarding them on to many who don’t know Lea, but who love the Lord. Know that you are inspiring us all and we are all praying for you in your time of need – and certainly for Lea’s full recovery as well. Words don’t seem to be enough – so I will close, but know that you are always in our thoughts and prayers.
FROM: Randy
Aug 21 @ 1:32 AM
Hi Larry, Lea continues to be in our prayers as do you. I appreciate your updates. Perhaps I never sent this Vaughn genealogy bit to you. I doubt it would be worthwhile entertainment for Lea but it might be for you!
Love and best wishes, Randy, Alison, and Leah
FROM: Scott
Aug 21 @ 2:12 AM
Larry & Lea, Remember Renee? My friend that shared with you? The following is from her dad. He preaches at several of the local “country” churches in Missouri where I grew up. This is just the summary to the rest of his sermon. He sends these to me weekly. I just thought what he had to share with one of his congregations might be worth sharing with you.
“So often we ask of God things that are impossible for us in the physical realm and we predetermine that it won’t happen but maybe we will get lucky…….Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of those things not yet seen……………
Three times God did the impossible for man and God acted upon the small amount of faith that man has:
1) He halted the sun and the moon for Joshua so he could finish the battle he was fighting.
2) Hezekiah wanted proof of his healing and Isaiah had the earth tilted 10 degrees (no big deal for God and no big deal to Isaiah.
3) Isaiah brought the earth back from the ten degree tilt Isaiah 38:8
All this done simply because mortal man requested it……….what will God do for you if you would only believe……..AMEN”
REPLY FROM: Larry Vaughn
Aug 21 @ 6:12 AM
Thank you, Scott! How appropriate! I will read this to Lea first thing this morning! Best wishes for your safety and happiness,
FROM: Gracie
Aug 21 @ 2:50 AM
I do a make shift job of playing the piano myself but I’ve always loved music especially singing. Music is a joyful pleasure in my life and I sang along as I read those words. Larry, you are such a dear. I know Lea is madly in love with you. You’re such a romantic. I love you both.
FROM: Link
Aug 21 @ 2:53 AM
So… did Aunt Pam make it through the (airline’s) mechanic’s strike? Did the tires on her plane blow?
FROM: Dean
Aug 21 @ 12:56 PM
Dear Larry, This was a very moving update – brought tears to my eyes. I don’t know how you do it. We had a good time with Lance in Port Aransas – he said the break and the fishing trip provided a much-needed diversion. This has been very difficult for him but he is holding up pretty well.
FROM: Karen
Aug 21 @ 2:44 PM
Hi, these updates are really remarkable, I would hope that Lea, bless her heart that she would never have to worry about returning to that working world where she was at, the stress I feel had a lot to do with her illnesses.Things hadn’t been good there for a while and she had a feeling that something was going on, when we were there the last time, she had emptied her desk completely and could walk out with only a picture she had kept on the desk if the situation arose. We love her dearly and wo uld hope that she can enjoy herself if the good Lord says we can keep her, otherwise we know that she would be fine whatever the Master’s plan is for her.
I am going back to work tomorrow, just a fun job, part-time and only from 9 to 1, I don’t have any little ones to watch anymore, since Mark works nights and he keeps little man at his house until 2 in the afternoon, so grandma needs some real people attention after 9 years, hopefully I will enjoy it and do well, and if not, I’ll find something else. Il’ll be working at the Recreation Center in Rantoul, on Flessner Dr, imagine that.Take Care and thanks for keeping in touch.
FROM: Lance
Aug 21 @ 4:44 PM
Hi, Mom! I sure do miss you tonight! I had a good weekend. Greg and Mike Thistlethwaite came down. Greg and I hung out all weekend and talked about the old times and the precariousness of where we are today. I want you to know that everything you’ve done and everything you are has really made an impression on everyone you’ve ever met and everyone that has ever heard of you. You are truly an angel among us, and we love you. We pray every day that you make your way back to us and hang out with us again and remind us of how wonderful life can be.
FROM: Marlowe
Aug 21 @ 8:56 PM
Dear family and friends, I am including a letter one of you sent me which may reflect the thoughts of many about Lea’s situation-very understandable under the circumstances. These are important questions to ask and to consider and pray about.
Larry’s latest update (8/20) expresses very eloquently the belief that all this suffering is for some good purpose. This is part of the Catholic Church’s stance in preserving life whenever possible, not making judgments that some lives are not worth living-only God should decide when life should end. However, the Catholic Church and many other church’s don’t require or even recommend extraordinary measures to be taken when there is no reasonable hope for recovery (e.g. in cases where there is “brain death” or terminal cancer cases) It is important to point out that in this case, the medical team has not indicated that there is no reasonable hope of a full recovery, although they continue to emphasize that there is still much that can go wrong, and that if she does survive her recuperation period will be very long.
They are supposed to give a revised assessment of her chances for survival tomorrow. Earlier last week they were telling Larry her chances were 80 % (up from 15 % originally), but this dropped to 30 % with the pulmonary complications. But these are only reasonable estimates-clearly her future is in God’s hands, and “with God all things are possible.”
Personally, I have come to see God’s will not as unchangeable or out there written on a scroll somewhere, but very much incarnated, enfleshed within each one of us, very accessible to us in the present moment. I do very much believe in the power of prayer, not to change God’s mind or will, but in our cooperating with God’s will to bring about His Kingdom. Though it may sometimes seem that some prayers for healing are answered, where some are not, I believe that all such prayers are an important part of God’s plan for both the person prayed for and for the pray-er. The healing which occurs may not look like we expect or desire-“God’s ways are not our ways”, and we can only trust and surrender to His higher wisdom.
I too am saddened by the suffering, but am also very uplifted and inspired by the ways in which I see God working through it. If Lea does “go to her reward”, I will not consider our prayers to be in vain!
—–FORWARDED MESSAGE—–
Marlowe, I realize that there is a lot of family connection here with Lance’s parents, and that there is an admirable faith community as well. But realistically, isn’t this a case where well-intentioned medical professionals are trying their best against impossible odds? Lance’s mother’s condition appears to me (very much a layman in this situation) to be extremely grave, and even hopeless, but there is a “grasping at straws” nature to the daily medical reports that seems, in the long run, to encourage unrealistic hope. Or am I reading this situation incorrectly?
I certainly admire Larry and the rest of the Vaughns, but is there truly any basis for hope, judging from the medical data alone? I guess what I’m asking is: is there any realistic (i.e, short of pure miracle) chance for a quality-of-life recovery in this situation, and if not, when should the medical professionals tell the family?
It’s all very sad.
FROM: Chris
Aug 21 @ 10:07 PM
She is being highly lifted up and the prayers for Lea are filling the temple. Keep the faith. God is leading you throgh this. the LORD wants us to trust him in this trying hour. just look to the hills from whence cometh our help. our help cometh from the Lord. I feel that Lea will get through this. I feel this is only a test. Aunt Margie, Lea will I feel be walking victoriosly, talking victoriouslly. a living testamony of Gods wonderful works. to god be the glory for the good he has done. For the good he is doing and the good he shall do. remember to keep the faith, because your faith holds and grips that solid rock……….. JESUS CHRIST……. Amen. may God bless you and keep you in loving arms. God bless.