Update on Nathan's progress

Here is the latest update on Nathan as well as a pic of him in the hospital.

If you want to follow the updates go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nathangrice

"We just arrived back at about 10:50 pm from seeing Nate at the hospital. Needless to say, the visit was long overdue!Not sure where to start... my poor little notepad is scrawled all over with notes on his condition, prognosis and other miscellany that needs to be shared.Please pardon me if a few details get mixed up and need corrected later. I've tried to keep all the clinical and procedural details accurate, but since I've not had the privilege of spending time in med school, there are bound to be some errors here and there.Nevertheless, here is what I have thus far:According to Dad and Mom, the first words he spoke when arriving back from surgery were: "God is GOOD and MERCIFUL." He had a little trouble pronouncing 'merciful,' but they definitely got the point!The pain has been greatly lessened now that the fragments are set in place and the swelling has gone down.Dad and Mom talked with one of the surgeons today, and he said Nate was doing "exceptionally well." After further examination, they felt fine removing the neck brace he's had on since the accident. No neck or spinal damage is apparent.The speech therapist was very impressed with his communicating abilities despite the recentness of his injury. Somehow, I don't find that too surprising... :) Nate was rather determined to do it as best he could. The therapist said she could tell "he was a fighter."She was also highly impressed that, even though he couldn't recall all the words, he could hum his way completely through a bunch of hymns without missing a note. One of the tunes he recalled is "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." How apt! What a blessing that he can still worship the Lord in some way, even if the words are not all in place!This morning they also administered a "GOAT" test (Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test), which is designed to show the level of "post-trauma amnesia" a person is experiencing. The scoring scale goes from 0-100, with 100 being the highest.Normally, a patient with this sort of injury will be able to score about 75-80 points two weeks afterward. People that score that high will usually recover to 98-100% of what functionality they lost.Our stellar student managed to peg an astounding score of 85, the day after surgery! You can imagine how uplifting that was!The rehab people cautioned that, even though he is currently recovering rapidly, it could still be anywhere from a month to a year before he's fully back to "normal." He will probably require at least a little therapy to get all the functionality back. However, we have seen enough of our Lord's miracle working thus far... and I wouldn't be surprised to see it progress faster. We shall see, I suppose.Dr. Bill Therall, the main surgeon from the team, finally made it down to Nate's room this evening at about seven. He also agreed that Nate is doing exceptionally well, and will be ready to be moved into a regular room tomorrow. Dr. Therall said that no further surgeries should be needed, as it looks like the damage was corrected very well with this first one. He also said that Nate's head bandage can come off tomorrow too, which is a blessing. It was very tight, and causing some discomfort.However, even with these positive things, there is still a long way to go. Please pray that Nate can be moved to a room by himself, so that he will not have to deal with the noise and commotion of having someone else in there with him. Loud, harsh noises or excessive talking are very disturbing to him, as he's still pretty sensitive to sound and such.Also, please continue to pray that his digestive system will fully "come online." He's very hungry, but the doctors are hesitant to allow him to eat anything too substantial yet. He is able to spoonfeed broth to himself, but is still not ready for solids. They may try a little bit tomorrow to see what happens. Also, due to the surgery, there was a small laceration to one of his jaw muscles near the ear. This causes some pain when he tries to chew. I will be typing a second update with the details of our visit... hopefully I can get it done tonight!

Rejoicing in the goodness and mercy of Jesus,RG

Thank you again to everyone who prayed. Prayers are being answered.