Has anyone heard anything lately about Mark's condition? I think about him daily as I check in here, and really miss all the research he provided for us. I hope all is well, and he is recovering.
No, and I am loathe to ask Rosie, since she has more than enough on her plate right now. Here's to hoping that Mark posts here before the New England Patriots win the Super Bowl for the 3rd time.
The Mark that we all knew will probably not ever be the same Mark that we knew, even if he makes a 100% recovery. I doubt that anyone can go through an experience like that and not be significantly changed by it. Here's to hoping for that 100% recovery and hoping that no news is good news in this case.
Mark is not in ICU any more Sorry for not posting before, but between having to look for a sub-accute hospital for Mark, and finding a well balance place in this for his parents (who are here for the month, but usually live in Canada, so we don't know each other really) time seems to have been stolen somehow. Well, Mark is a bit more alert, but a full cognitive assement is still hard, it the Los Amigos Scale I would say he is between a III or a IV out of VIII, so he has made progress from the first week were he was in a deep comatose state, to know when he is opening his eyes and following us and showing interest in things. He has some kind of infection in his left lung, and today they think he may had experience a Seizure. They are not sure, because staff found him with bite marks to his lips (bleeding) and in the inside of his mouth. However his pupils where responsive when they found him. So who knows how much time had pass? Any way the rest of the day, he was as find as in days before, doing hand movements with purposes (he is trying to get to his feeding tube, scratching himself, and pushing away barriers we set for him). I am also working on some hand signals, but we have not developed consistency (they work some times). Any one know of a cheap and online nursing curse? I may need it, since I know we are in this for many more months to come. Feel free to e-mail me if I have not posted, I don't want to burden the forum with our day to day steps, but I do feel so happy, when like tonight I drop in and find that you still want to know about Mark. That he has friends that miss his contributions. Thank you, Rosie Israel
Re: Mark is not in ICU any more Rosie, please don't ever think for a second that you are burdening us by posting about Mark's condition. I promise that we are all very concerned and very interested in how Mark is recovering. He is a valuable contributor to this board, and we all miss his input.
Absolutely so, Rosie. Thanks for the update. You both are in our thoughts and prayers with or without current information on how Mark is doing. We know he is in good hands with you, and we look forward to his being able to report for himself on how he is doing, and then to his resuming his fierce fighting for integrity in distance learning. There is a pun here, but also our hope and our confidence: "Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." (Psalm 121:4) Very best wishes, Janko
Rosie, Thanks so much for the update. I guess it is hard for us to imagine how bad his condition really is. I guess in my mind I thought that he would be recovering, and joining us again soon. I now realize how long the road will be. Please do continue to keep us posted because we all wish you both the best, and will continue to put you in our prayers.
Rosie, Never a burden! Thank you for the update. I'm glad to hear that progress is still being made. I will keep you both in my prayers! Pug
Rosie: The excellent Penn State University has a short course that sounds like it might be a very good start. Here is the description: ------------------------------------------------ The Prepared Family Caregiver course for Family members or friends giving care at home to persons with serious illnesses. Patients who are managing their own care can also benefit from this course. Churches, community organizations, hospitals, and home health agencies have presented this course. ------------------------------------------------------- Many of the readings for the course can be done on line: http://www.hmc.psu.edu/copelink/readings/caring.htm or http://www.hmc.psu.edu/copelink/familym.htm The complete kit can be purchased and sent by mail. I would like to buy it for you. Can you tell me the address where it should be sent? John Bear [email protected]
THANK YOU ROSIE! I've been away from the board for a week or two myself do to intense studying, I just came today to check for any news of Mark! I hope my get well card made it to you, I sent it to Scripps ICU. I only know Mark from this board, but I feel like I have known him forever. He is always so generous with his advice and knowledge and eager to share! His sharing contributed greatly to motivating me to complete my batchelors degree. You'll probably never know how many lives you both have touched through this board and how much good you and Mark have done! Please let Mark know we are praying for you both, and that we are confident of Mark's strength of will and of your devotion to him, and that those two very powerful things will guide the way to his healing! May God bless your family, and PLEASE keep us up to date whenever time allows!
Rosy's log on mark's recovery Rosy's blog on Mark's recovery can be found here. I'm a friend of Mark's from some time back. I was doing a google search for background information (to help with memory recovery), and I found this list.
Yes, this is the first I've heard about this awful occurance. I am sad to hear about it, but happy he is moving along to a kind of recovery. My best wishes to you and your family. Dan Burrello
THANK YOU STEPHEN! Thank you very much for the link! The journal is a GREAT idea for all of us to keep up to date on Mark's progress! I know that for Mark and Rosie the road is going to be a long one filled with many ruts and obstacles, but if prayers count for anything, they'll not have to travel it alone. Thank you again, and please extend our best wishes to Mark and Rosie.
I want to make an observation that I believe naturally ties-in with this thread and I feel now's as good a time to make said observation as any; and that I believe won't be disrespectful as long as everyone reads it as truly intended, wholly, and in context. In my various readings in these forums I could not help but notice the frequent references to "that other" forum that no one around here dares name lest doing so give it more credibility (for even existing) than it deserves. And, of course, I've read all kinds of comments about how vicious the posters over there are, etc. Even before I read anything negative about "that other" forum here, I had stumbled onto it and I had noticed how immature, vicious, unfair and genuinely mean-spirited some of its postings were. And, of course, there is much negative mention in "that other" forum about DegreeInfo (which some of them call "Degree(Mis)Info") and what jerks they all seem to think John Bear is, or that Rich Douglas is, etc., etc., etc. Without anyone telling me (here or anywhere else), I could see that these (in "that other" forum) were not reasonable people and that little or nothing they had to say should be taken seriously. Still, sometimes (and I mean darned rarely, but still... sometimes) I find myself over there just reading some of the posts -- my head shaking in disbelief through most of it. It's sort of like a car crash... you know? Just can't not look. But the other day I stumbled onto a thread over there that sickened me and told me in the most clear and convincing way I could ever imagine that the core group of posters over there are beyond being merely encouragable and that they are, in fact, sociopaths... in a clinical sense, in most cases. Someone in that group talked about Mark and how much they disliked him and said, in effect, that what had happened to him was good enough for him. I couldn't believe my eyes as I read it... stopping and furrowing my brow in disbelief; then re-reading it two or three more times to make sure that the posting actually said what it appeared to say. But it got worse. Others chimed-in saying that the same fate should befall John Bear and Rich Douglas and others here -- to the point that subsequent posters even offered to purchase bikes for them to ride in the hopes that they, too, would fall and sustain a head injury. It was unbelievable. I know it may be a temptation for the administrators here to delete this posting thinking that it's in poor taste... but that would be killing the messenger. This isn't a posting calling attention to their actions for the glory of them. It is, conversely, me taking this opportunity of opportunities to show convincingly, once and for all, lest there be any doubt, that those core posters in "that other" forum really are monsters. Even words like "reprehensible" can't adequately capture it. It is stunning to the senses when one's fellow man can be so callous and, yes, evil. Knowing how Mark felt about this forum, and how badly he wanted the world to take it, and not "that other" forum, seriously, there is no doubt in my mind that he and his wife would want a post like this in this thread... so I hope no one deletes it. Instead, I hope this posting is referred to often as containing the most elemental, fundamental, self-revealing proof of all that "that other" forum shouldn't be given the time of day. And I would encourage those in this forum who occasionally cross to the wrong side of the tracks to post to that one in futile attempts to correct them and/or to bring accuracy or truth to their threads to stop validating it by even bothering. No reasonable, rational, intelligent person who has even the tiniest bit of basic human decency could possibly read those threads over there and not realize without being told by anyone here that they are populated by the scum of the earth. Truly. Let such as they inevitably fall on their own swords. Much luck to Mark as he recovers. How difficult it is to understand why such bad things so often happen to such good people. May peace and strength make their way into his life and the lives of his loved ones; and may we see him post here once more some day... howsoever unlike himself he may or may not by then appear to be... he will, nevertheless, be who he is... a child of God in any case.
