April 5 9:00 pm

Just visited Neil. Neil was on the trach collar for 2 hours and 20 minutes. Whippee!!!! He is doing so good. This has been a great Saturday. He has no temperature, thank goodness. Neil is doing great with the tube feeding. They finally found a "recipe" that agrees with him. There is progress in all areas. My goodness, even his blood pressure is within normal limits. He is still wearing a blood pressure patch but has not had to have additional medication in several days. Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Please pray for the full recovery of Sue, Shannon, John, Bryant and our other friends here. Sue has been drowsy most of the day. We hope she has a good night's sleep. We continue to pray that Shannon will wake up. She is making progress every day.

We cannot wait for tomorrow. There is no way we could have managed this without you all. Thank you so very much.

April 5 6:50 pm

Just visited Neil. He is on the trach collar as I write this. This visit lasted a bit longer. We were able to talk to the respiratory therapist and learned quite a bit. At night Neil is not on any breaths on the ventilator at night. He has support pressure of 10 and 5 PEEP at night and when he is on the ventilator during the day. To come off the ventilator is a real process. Neil will have to be able to breath normally (which is much slower than he is breathing now). The respiratory therapist said this would take about two weeks. As she said this, Neil said he could do this quicker than that. My goodness, he is having a good day. Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Please pray for the full recovery of Sue, Shannon, John, Beverly and our other friends here.

Thank you all for your love and support. We so appreciate each of you

April 5 1:35 pm

Just visited Neil. Neil was able to stay on the trach collar for two hours. He is getting stronger and stronger. My goodness, this is a blessing. Neil had a temperature of 99.5 this morning, but it is back down. Wow, we hope all of you are having as good a Saturday as we are.


Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Please pray for the full recovery of Sue, Shannon, John, Bryant and our other friends here.


Thank you all for your love and support. Please continue to surround the Andress family with your love. Be safe in your travels today

April 5 10:30 am

Just visited Neil. I feel like we are Neil's physical therapy team and everything else team rolled into one on the weekend. DeAnn was starting the bone stimulator and Dad was helping Neil work-out his left leg! I can't imagine what we look like but it makes me smile thinking about it. Dad and I just walked out and Neil was starting out the trach collar when we left. He was shooting for an hour again today and we didn't want you to have to wait again that long for the update!

Please continue to pray for Neil's lungs.

Please pray for the full recovery of Sue Shelton, Shannon Jones, John Waters, Bryant Beverly and our other friends here. John is diabetic and his colon perforated. The have done a colostomy and have told the family he is septic. John is from Selma and is SICU. Bryant Beverly has had by pass surgery and is in a room. He has a temperature and is very congested. His daughter is very worried about him.

Hope you all have a grand Saturday. Thanks so very much for your love and support.

April 4 9:20 pm

Just visited Neil. Wow, he has had a busy day. He has been on the trach collar breathing on his own three separate times and each time he was able to do this for longer periods of time. When he is doing this he does have oxygen over the trach. It has been a workout day for him. He does not have a temperature, thank goodness. Dang, we are so proud of Neil. Kenneth says Neil has his own "bow-flex" on his bed. He is able to work his arms with the contraption one of the nurses rigged up. Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Everyone here has had a good day. Sue used the trach collar for over eight and a half hours today. She is getting better and better at this. Shannon continues to make progress. As with Neil we love baby steps.


Hope you all have had a good Friday. We cannot wait until Saturday. Thanks so much to each of you.

April 4 7:15pm

Sorry this is late. Just visited Neil. My goodness, he was on the trach collar for 1 hour and 25 minutes. Yippee!!!! We were able to stay the whole time. All his vitals are good. This is another banner day. We cannot wait to see him at 8:30. Please pray for Neil's lungs.


Please continue to pray for the full recovery of Sue Shelton and Shannon Jones. Both Sue and Shannon have had a good day. We are so grateful. Listen to this. Shannon's eyes are staying open longer and longer and she was able to squeeze her hand. Let's pray hard for her to keep waking up.


Without your support, we could have never managed this. As the storm clouds gather and the news is full of tornado watches and warnings, we do hope and pray everyone is safe. Reese is back with us. Yea!!!

April 4 1:40 pm

Just visited Neil. Wonderful friends from Troy University brought the most fabulous banner you have ever seen. Neil was amazed and thrilled. One of the nurses has hooked up several exercise devices for Neil. My goodness, Neil is doing so well. He is on the trach collar as I write this. He was on the trach collar for 40 minutes this morning. He wants to try for an hour. The respiratory therapist told Neil not to overdo as this was like if you work out too much one day then the next you cannot do as much. She encouraged him to take this as he could. Kenneth and DeAnn are still back with him. His oxygen sat is 97 and his breaths are a bit quick. He works very hard to bring these down.

Please pray for the full recovery of Sue Shelton and Shannon Jones.

This waiting room continues to be filled with blessings. You all are so wonderful to keep us in your prayers and support.