Back on the 4th Floor!

We made it back to the 4th floor today! We are hoping this will be our permanent residence for the rest of our hospital stay. We are tentatively scheduled for skin flaps/grafts on Tuesday. This would put us back in ICU, but only for 3 days so they can monitor the flaps. They are possibly going to try again because he made a great recovery this weekend and is completely off O2 at the moment.  We are just going to wait and see if it happens. (We are not getting our hopes up again, but we are hoping that 3rd times a charm) Today was a good day, but Justin was tired. I think all the meds are making him lethargic.

Today Justin had a visitor from the Medal of Honor Recipient, Sergeant First Class Petry. He was a very nice guy and spent time talking to Justin and his friend Mike. (Mike was injured in early July and was in Justin's battery) The picture above is from today. Other than that not a lot to report. Justin had a quite day and spent most of it eating or sleeping. Our cousin Kelli spent her last day here with us. We are sad to see her leave but so glad she came! She is heading back to Hawaii in the morning. I will keep everyone updated as the week progresses!

2 am phone call continued

Wednesday began with a 2 am phone call...

Tuesday night before we left Justin he didn't seem himself. He said his stomach hurt and he really just wanted to use the bathroom. My mom told his nurse to call if he needed anything because she said "something just doesn't seem right with him today." At 2 am the nurse called because Justin's blood pressure dropped to 53/34 with a heart rate of 155. They could not figure out why this was happening. He went through the night getting worse and worse while different treatment options were attempted. He finally went to CT in the morning and it appeared that Justin's bowels were possibly dying. He also had an Echocardiogram of his heart the day before. It showed a small amount of fluid around his heart. The CT also showed his lungs still not looking great. The conclusion finally came that Justin needed an emergency surgery to figure out what was going on in the bowels, and the fluid around his heart needed to be drained.

When I arrived at the hospital around 9 am (Oh because my dad did not want to wake me up) he was very pale and had peri-oral cyanosis (He was turning blue around his mouth). Justin's oxygenation was getting worse and he was starting to get tired from breathing. He body was very cold. He was in bad shape and it all happened very quickly. Around 1 pm they decided they needed to intubate him because he was going to tire out soon and then he was off to surgery.

Before going to surgery we were told he would possibly come back with a colostomy bag, gallbladder may need to be removed, possible colon resection if any bowel died. They also wanted to drain the fluid around the heart.

Thankfully the surgery went well! The little bit of fluid around the heart ended up being A LOT of fluid around his heart. So much he went into Cardiogenic Shock with restrictive cardiomyopathy causing cardiac tamponade. His EKG showed pericarditis. (Pretty much this means his heart couldn't beat normally because all the fluid was squeezing the around the heart. This caused his blood pressure to decrease). Removing the fluid immediately increased his blood pressure and helped correct his vitals. Then they had to open up his abdomen (which couldn't be done with a camera because of the risk of air pressure compressing the vascular system and causing the blood pressure to worsen). Thankfully when they opened his abdomen up there was no dead bowels (just a lot of stool) and his gallbladder was fine, but his liver was very enlarged and swollen. (This was due to the back flow of fluid around his heart) We also found out that Justin has a hole in his heart known as ASD(Atrial septal defect). He has probably had the problem since birth we just never knew about it. Overall, the surgery went better than expected. The surgeons were preparing for the worst, and so were we.

Thankfully the last few days Justin has been doing a lot better. He is still in CCU and most likely will remain there throughout the weekend. The decision to do hand flaps are still up in the air because the plastic surgeons and hand surgeon are not sure if he is stable enough for a 10-14 hour surgery. Tuesday he will go in for routine washouts of his wounds. In surgery they will place him on his side (the position needed for flaps) and see if he can handle it without dropping his oxygenation.

Today he was very tired and slept most of the day. Our cousin Kelli flew in from Hawaii to visit yesterday and Auntie Lori had to go home tonight :(. Justin enjoyed seeing family (even if he slept most of the day on them). As long as Justin continues to do well throughout the weekend and is up to it he may receive his Purple Heart on Monday!

We want to thank Eryn Ogren and Crystal Atwood for putting together the Pizza Fundraiser. Thank you to everyone that supported it! It was so wonderful to hear that the city came together to support Justin. We even received a call from the City of Rancho asking for updates on Justin. Thank you to everyone for supporting Justin and our family through this tough time. We have our good days and bad days and Wednesday was probably one of the worst days. At the same time we are so thankful everything turned out okay this week. Justin is very appreciative of everything and tells us all the time to thank everyone!

We hope everyone has a good weekend and good night from Bethesda!

2011 Car Show: Justin Crabbe Fundraiser {October 22nd}

Shakey's Fundraiser was a HUGE success!

Last night Eryn Ogren and Crystal Atwood hosted a fundraiser for Justin at Shakey's pizza in Rancho Cucamonga. They put a lot of hard work into this event, and it showed. What a wonderful turn out... for a good portion of the evening, the line was out the door and down the sidewalk!

Shakey's said the was by far the biggest turnout for a fundraiser they had seen. There were SCE employees, friends and family members, the City of Rancho Cucamonga police and fire, and fellow Marines. People who knew Justin well, and others who ahd never met him before all together supporting a true hero.

Look at that line!

Thank you all for your support.
It was an amazing evening! ♥

2 am phone call

Today started with a 2 am phone call from the hospital.

I just wanted to send out a quick note to let everyone know Justin is stable now. He had an emergency surgery today. I will blog tomorrow and explain everything but I am exhausted today and really need to go to sleep. Justin is back on a ventilator but hopefully in the next few days he will be off it. Thank you for all the prayers they really helped.

Good Night from Maryland!

Keeping our fingers crossed!

Today was another day in CCU. Justin is now scheduled for his hand flaps/graft surgery for Friday! The doctors want to make sure he is strong enough so they postponed it. We are all hoping he stays healthy until Friday. The surgery is going to be anywhere from 10-14 hours. We are nervous because it is a long surgery, and he will be on the ventilator again for 24 hours after surgery. Hopefully this will be the last big surgery.

Today was an okay day. Justin wasn't feeling great today. He had an upset stomach. Positive note he did sit up again with physical therapy (4th time in 40 days). He will not be able to get back into his wheelchair until sometime next week. We want him to stay healthy so we are trying not to expose him to anything. Tomorrow he goes back in for washouts so we are praying everything goes well. We can't afford any set backs or his surgery will be off.

Tonight we were given another reminder of how THANKFUL we are. Justin is alive and has no brain injuries. Two additional Army soldiers came into CCU tonight from Germany and both are in very critical conditions. Please pray for these soldiers and their families along with all injured and non-injured service men and women. Walking the halls of Bethesda is a reality check. It is a reminder to be thankful and not to sweat the little things in life. These military men are such a huge inspiration!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed Justin's picture. That was taken on one his best day so far. He still has a long recovery road, but we celebrate the good days. Today he was very uncomfortable and tired. We are hoping in the next few weeks that we will have more good days. More days with his great smile! I wish everyday was like that, but we are just not there yet.

Good night from a warmer day in Bethesda!

Finally back up and running!!

To Recap the last 2 weeks:

Wed Sept 21st: Justin was supposed to have his long 12 hour surgery for bilateral hand skin flaps/graft. That morning he woke up with a 104.9 fever which landed him back in the ICU with pneumonia and he was borderline septic. Due to multiple infections, his body had nothing left to fight the second round of pneumonia. Instead of his White Blood Cells being high (which is a normal response to infection) his was extremely low. Which was a cause for concern and he needed multiple blood transfusions again and 10 liters of fluid. He was very puffy looking, but it ultimately did the trick. He finally made it back to the 4th floor during the middle of the week.

Sept 29th: This was the first day Justin test drove his new set of wheels! He was up for an hour!! It was great because he was able to visit all his friends on the 4th floor!

Friday Sept 30th: Justin went in for his routine washout surgery this day. He ended up having to stay in the recovery room for most of the day because his heart rate decided to be sky high AGAIN. He was also having a "Ketamine" drug trip where he told my parents that "Charlie Sheen was in his operating room." Thank goodness Charlie Sheen wasn't really the surgeon because then Justin wouldn't be "winning!!" Thankfully this was a short lived drug trip and he was back to himself right away.

Sat Oct 1st: Justin's friend Mendez came to visit with his dad from New York. He was Justin's roommate in Hawaii, but did not deploy because he was getting out of the Marines. Britt another fellow Marine who was injured in June also came to visit. He is currently at another hospital in Virginia and doing well!

Sun Oct 2nd: Myself, my best friend Steph and my Auntie Lori all flew back together. Justin was in good spirits and happy to see all of us! He even got up in his wheelchair again in the late afternoon. (Bad news the wheelchair wouldn't start... operator error.. So dad had to push) Thank goodness we are all getting a lesson on how to use the chair soon! Justin spent the afternoon watching his Green Bay Packers Beat the Denver Broncos! He was thrilled and in a great mood. Especially since he received a gift from the Packers including a signed football from the team and a picture from Aaron Rodgers. Steph also hooked him up with Angels Gear including a signed Jered Weaver ball and Mike Scioscia picture. Justin was in sports Heaven!

Today: Justin had surgery this morning for routine washouts plus a video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). This procedure was to clean out the scar tissue in his lung. Justin didn't tolerate the procedure very well so they were not able to completely remove all the scar tissue without having to open him up. Overall, the surgery was successful to help his right lung completely expand, but he does have two chest tubes now placed in the right lung to drain excess fluid. Justin is back in the ICU to be monitored from todays procedure and his oxygenation initially was low. Now he is on higher oxygen therapy to increase his blood gas levels. Tentatively he is scheduled for his bilateral hand flaps/graft surgery for Wednesday.  We are hoping to remain stable enough for surgery and keep his oxygenation up! 


Thank you for the continued prayers and support!!! Good night from a very cold Maryland (Especially since I left California on Saturday with 98 degree weather and arrived here with 48 degree weather). 

Justin looking much better than a month ago! Cruising in his chair!!