Thank You

This is a note from Brian's mother, Kathy. She (and our whole family) are so grateful to you all for your love and support. The last portion is what she said about him at the funeral :).

To my dear friends and family,

This has been a very difficult time for our family but I want you to know that we have felt the Lord's love as you have shared anecdotes and feelings about our sweet son, Brian. We have truly been comforted by your thoughts and prayers. We know we will see him again and that he has gone on to a new adventure where he will continue to serve the Lord. Thank you so much for your concern and love.

I would like to leave these thoughts about Brian with you...

He disliked corn, being caught cheating at cards, losing, getting up early, getting his hair messed up, cleaning up after himself, fighting and contention, and being alone.
He liked oatmeal raisin cookies, pumpkin pie, eating out, clothes, cologne, video games, girls, movies, working out, rock climbing, anything Spanish, and the color purple.
He loved getting his back scratched, people, the gospel, his family, temple work, studying the scriptures, sharing the gospel, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Here are some things I constantly heard from him:
1. No worries.
2. It's all good, mom.
3. I love you.

Brian touched the lives of everyone he met. He loved everyone and they loved him right back. He always had a positive attitude and was friendly to everyone. He has a strong testimony of our Savior and the atonement. He loved being a member of the church and was enthusiastic about teaching others about it.
My sweet son Brian...My arms ache to give you a hug and I want so badly to whisper in your ear that I love you. I am so proud of how you lived your life. I know the Lord could have preformed a miracle and saved you but I believe you chose to move on to serve our Heavenly Father elsewhere. There will always be a hole in our family where you should be, but I know we will see you again and then I will finally be able to give you that hug and whisper I love you. I love you. I love you.

Mom

Last Update

It was discovered today that there was no blood flow to Brian's brain and he is brain dead. He will be able to help people one last time by donating some of his organs.

Thank you all for your support and love. We ask at this time that people don't come up to the hospital so the family can have a little space. 

We love Brian and will miss him tremendously but take some comfort in knowing that we will see him again. Think of the missionary work in the spirit realm and how happy he'll be to spread his love of the gospel.

Thank you and love to all.

Update #8

Brian's night did not go well. He is having a test at one that will probably deliver bad news. Pray for the Kelley family. No visitors or questions at all today please. I will update around two.

Update #7

This morning Brian's chest x-ray looks great, the fluid has remained gone. The lines that were sutured into his are were removed and they are going to monitor his blood pressure with a cuff. They want to encourage Brian to wake up so they are lowering his sedation, he hasn't had morphine since yesterday and is doing fine without it. They are also switching the setting on the ventilator so he can mostly breathe on his own.

As far as his brain goes, today and tomorrow are critical. His swelling hasn't changed and he is running a slight temperature. They would like to see the swelling go down. In the next two days Brian will either start to improve or he will start getting worse. Please pray for Brian's brain swelling to go down and for him to wake up. He is moving a little bit - which is a good sign - but they would like to see more movement since he is no longer under sedation.

Brian needs all the prayers he can get in the next 48 hours.

Keep it coming!

Hey everyone, I have an update on Brian coming in a few hours, sorry today is a little bit of a crazy travel day. Expect it around 3:00 pm!

In the mean time, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the messages and support you are leaving Brian on here and on his Facebook wall. This is going to be so incredibly important to him when he wakes up. This will all be a shock and a lot to deal with - knowing he has so many people behind him will mean the world. This blog gets an average of 1,000 view in 8 hours - that is INCREDIBLE!

Again, thank you so much.

Update #6

Brian is mostly the same as yesterday.

Sometime this morning, the Doc confirmed that his off hematocrit level is due to blood in the lower chest. They said they would need to insert drainage tubes on each side of his chest to remove it. That would have been done done during his back surgery - if that surgery can happen in the next 48 hours. Right now, he isn't stable enough for the surgery. BUT miracle after miracle is happening with this kid and now the fluid is completely gone - no tubes necessary!!!! Hooray. The Doc said Brian's body is doing a good job flushing the excess fluid out.

He was much more restful last night because the Doc raised his sedation level. The doctors and nurses are urging us (his fam) to sleep at our houses. They say we need to be the strongest for him when he wakes up. And they are right...this is probably why they don't have beds in the waiting room.

Here are some fun pictures of Brian! We sure love this crazy boy.

It was chilly at Susan's wedding so we all just cuddled up!

The Kelley Fam

He REALLY wanted to be a bridesmaid...Although he is standing in front of Susan so maybe he wanted to be the one to marry Joe? (Just kidding :)

Update #5

These are all of Brian's meds. Pretty crazy!

Brian's hematocrit level in his blood is still very low, yesterday it increased a little from the initial drop but it needs to increase more. The doctor thinks there is blood in the lower chest cavity and in the spinal area that is causing his low levels. Later, they are going to do a CT scan to confirm if that is the case.

Surgery on his back will be postponed until Monday or later. 

Brain Pressure is still not stable, he had a pretty rough night again last night. He was posturing a lot, using not just his arms but shoulders as well. The doctor says this is good because it indicates the brain is beginning to wake up. The doctor pinched Brian pretty hard on his upper arms to get a reaction and Brian curled up his right arm which is outstanding! His left arm is still just posturing. Brian is going to have real sore muscles when he wakes up! 

Side note: I expounded on the story behind the picture in the post I put up last night. Read it for a laugh :), It is in the same post. 

Update #4

Hey everyone, we are just hangin' out at the hospital. It's been a bit of a long, rough day.

Brian's blood test came back good and his blood levels are getting back to normal, but his brain swelling isn't going down. The CT scan just showed a little more blood and bruising around his brain, so that was not good. Since he isn't stable yet, so his back surgery might have to be postponed.

Not great news, but it could be worse. Here is a picture to cheer us all up and remember Brian's silliness. Brian served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Augusta, Georgia mission. There, it was a common belief among the people he taught that Jesus was black. He and his companion walked into a gift shop one day and saw this statue and he LOVED it! Brian loved his mission and anything that reminds him of it. He would be so happy his black Jesus is in the hospital with him. Brian was and still is an outstanding missionary.

Update #3

Brian had a rough night last night. His blood level has dropped in half and they have given him two units of blood. It might be internal bleeding but the doctors aren't sure yet because they don't know where he would be bleeding. They also said it could be his body catching up to the trauma. If his levels continue to drop, they will do a CT scan of his stomach to see if he has bleeding there. He is set for another blood test at 10 am.

During the night he had episodes of elevated blood pressure and heart rate, however the pressure oh his brain is still at a good level. Only family visitors please. As mentioned in the previous post, I will let everyone know when friend visits can resume.

This is a message from Kathy: "The care at this hospital has been so good. The support of family and friends can be felt and is appreciated. I know Brian is ready and worthy for whatever the Lord has in store for him."

Keep him in your prayers today.

No more visitors...

As much as we love and appreciate all the support Brian is receiving from friends, we are sorry to say no more friend visitors until the weekend. He is starting to get agitated and upset. We don't want to exclude or offend anyone but we will always do what is best for Brian. PLEASE remember that his brain has suffered severe trauma and be quiet and calm when you do visit. I will post when visits can resume.

Update #2

Here is another update on Brian:

They inserted a feeding tube through Brian's nose and he didn't like that one bit. He flexed his arms and chewed on the ventilator tube - but I am sure he will be happy to get some food!

His left eye is getting swollen and starting to bruise, just some tissue damage.

You might be able to notice in the pictures they left Brian a little tuft of hair when they shaved his head next to his staples. Kathy said he would love it if he knew! Also notice that his fantastic mustache is still clearly visible - Andy plans to shave for him and keep it that way :)

Questions and Answers

Here are some questions I have gotten today that I will answer for everyone since I am sure more than one person is wondering.

What hospital is Brian at?
     Provo IHC in the ICU. If you go to the main building, it is on the second floor. There is a sign that says "Brain Shock and Trauma" or something like that. You need a pass code to get in so just find a family member when you get there. If he moves, I will post about it.

Can friends visit him?
     Sure thing, but only 2 at a time for about 5 minutes. If  you could try and come between 2pm and 6pm that would be awesome for the family so they can have a time frame. It is a short time because his room needs to be kept pretty quiet and calm. His brain doesn't need extra stimulation, that could increase blood flow/pressure and increase swelling.

How coherent has Brian been?
     He has been moving his arms and he can probably hear us but he isn't coherent at all. He was sedated for his surgery but for now he is just on pain killers so they can monitor his brain. He probably won't be coherent for a while, we will know more in the next 4-5 days.

Update #1

Hey everyone. Meet this kid, his name is Brian and he is awesome.

As you all probably know by now, Brian was in a very bad motorcycle wreck yesterday. He landed on his back and the back of his head hit the ground really hard. He was taken immediately into emergency brain surgery. There, the surgeon was able to relieve swelling by removing a piece of Brian's left temporal lobe and that surgery went as well as it could have. A lot of times when swelling is removed in one side of the brain it can move to the other side but this didn't happen, which was awesome. He has some bruising all around his brain but nothing that looks incredibly severe.  He had a CAT scan at 4 am this morning and it showed swelling going down a little bit - this is very good news. We won't know anything about brain damage for about a week.

As far as Brian's back goes, the surgeon thinks it is broken completely in half. This means the spinal cord is also most likely severed in half. Due to the urgency of his brain trauma, they are waiting to look at his back more closely for a few days. Surgery is scheduled tentatively for Saturday. Because of the severity of his back injuries, Brian will probably be paralyzed.

He has a few minor injuries, a broken rib and a small collapsed lung. They will be weaning him off his ventilator later today.

On a slightly humorous side note: with brain trauma patients, the doctors and nurses like to see them moving their arms straight down or flexing them up (like doing a bicep curl). This is good because they put them in restraints and the body and brain should fight against the restraints. Well. Remember how Brian is really buff? He was not at all too happy to have his arms restrained down and he was giving those doctors A LOT of movement. We can all imagine what he was thinking :). He broke some tape and they had to redo some of his arm bandaging because he was flexing so much! When he wakes up we will be sure to let him know he didn't miss a day of workouts...neither did his nurse.

That is all for now folks! Thank you again for your love and prayers. Brian has an incredible team working with him at the hospital and we are also very grateful to them. Brian is always incredibly positive and hopeful so we are trying to mirror that excellent example. Here is a little video that lifted me up this morning and embodies Brian's abounding hope and love of life and the Gospel.

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." -Romans 15:13