Will Arrive Greenville around 10pm Sunday night

Hi everyone, Kirstin here.

Thanks to Jonathan's aunt Debbie and my bro Steve hanging in there to find the right flight, Jonathan, me and his dad will be flown by air ambulance to Greenville today (Sunday) -- and J couldn´t be happier to be getting back to US soil!!

These services are door-to-door, so a local ambulance is arranged to pick up J at 11am to take him to the airport in Lima. We'll take off on a Lear jet around 12:30 today with a nurse and a paramedic on board. There will be at least one fuel stop, probably in Miami. When we land at the Greenville airport, there will be an ambulance (with drivers that speak English -- yay!) ready to take Jonathan to the Greenville Memorial Hospital. We expect to arrive there around 10pm tonight, or shortly thereafter tonight (Sunday night). There are more variables with the winds and the fuel stop than with a commercial flight, of course, so exact timing is hard to gauge.

He´ll be brought into the emergency room, and there will likely be an MRI done as soon as possible. We don´t yet know when the second surgery will be, but the docs there are of the mindset that it should be as soon as they can get a handle on his condition and get it lined up. Once we were able to make it clear with his surgeon that we were taking him away, the staff here was great about getting copies of the medical chart and giveing me the original films from the emergency room and some post-op pictures.

NEXT STEPS:
The next surgery is a big one. They need to go through his chest cavity to work on his spine from the front. This is much more intense than the initial stabilizing surgery they did here in Lima. Someone says it will take 12-15 hours (???), but don´t quote me, I think Jonathan told me that and remember he's no doctor, plus is on pain killers. (He may have picked that up from his conversations with the various US docs, more details on that surgery later.)

JONATHAN'S CONDITION:
He has much less pain, instead he says it is more 'discomfort'. Although, when he is moved at times htere is more pain. Yessterday they brought in this custom brace that was molded for him, so that helps keep him stable and more comfortable. We told him it makes him look like a gladiator, or an action figure. But I reminded him he'll have to keep the action to a minimum for a while!!

His left leg is very noticibly regaining mobility, but the right leg is not coming around as quickly. He can move that foot, but is so far just able to twitch that leg. It is still early in his recuperation and of course there is an additional surgery, so we hope that this will improve. Please keep your prayers focused on our guy gaining all movement, so he can someday soon be the Action Hero we all know and love! :-)

The sores on his back side have healed up a bit, so that is great news. The nurses have shaved and washed JD's hair so he can feel presentable. Certainly the worst part of this already is the helplessness he must feel. He is not a patient guy and wants so much to be up and about!!

Gotta run, we need to get to the hospital this morning to pack him up.

Thank for all you notes, keep them coming, it really helps!
kirstinwilliams@ gmail. com (remove the space when sending)