Happy Father’s Day to everyone reading this. I know it’s been over a month since I sent out any word via this blog site, but we’ve had many calls have come in asking how we are doing, so thought I would give a quick update.

We’re hanging in there day to day - sometimes it’s a little easier, and the next day may feel very hard again, so it really depends on when we’re asked, and how life feels right then. Emotions can be very unpredictable, and change from one extreme to the other with no notice or obvious reason. We are so grateful for all of the prayers and encouragements from friends and family who keep reminding us that we are loved and not forgotten.

I am trying to figure out our financial picture - amazing how much time and effort it takes. We would appreciate prayers for God’s wisdom and provision, since all the thousands of dollars in uncovered medical bills (that fell in between the cracks when the first medical insurance money ran out) are beginning to come in. We are applying for financial help from UCSF, but I’m concerned that we may have to go through the life insurance Scott left for us to live on for a while. Many people have been so generous in the past, but financial help is NOT what I’m asking for right now - just prayers for God to work everything out in the best possible way.

This coming week, the three of us are all actually going to be on “vacation.” Daniel and Becky will be going with our church’s high school group for a week-long house boating, wake boarding, water skiing, etc, event, and I will (unexpectedly and last minute) get to spend the week up at Lake Tahoe with Mount Hermon’s Family Camp at Lake Tahoe. I think we’re all really looking forward to some time away relaxing and having a little fun. So if you call over the next week, we’re fine, but not answering the phone!

We hope all of you are well, and we continue to thank you for all the practical help, prayer support, and love we are continuing to be showered with. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and He will never leave or forsake us.

Bless you all,

Lynne, Daniel, and Becky

Greetings on Mother’s Day to everyone. Thank you so much for the many, many cards, hugs, phone calls, prayers, and all the comfort and encouragement we’ve received from so many. We are so grateful for all the outpouring of love.

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve had the physical and emotional energy to put together anything that would be even semi-coherent here on the blog. Life has often just felt like a fog. Some days are okay, other days, I just don’t want to get out of bed. There’s a lot of official and financial details to take care of, and I seem to only be able to handle a few each day, and some days, none at all.

The past two days I’ve been going through the many pictures we have taken over the years in preparation for the memorial service, which has been both really good, as well as really hard. Too many times I’ve thought, “I’ve got to ask Scott where this was,” and then remember that I can’t. A week ago on Saturday, a whole crew of people came over to help get rid of overgrowth and brush in our front yard since it hasn’t had any attention for the past year and a half. Scott loved his roses, and now that so much has gotten cleared out, I keep looking out the window, maybe at dusk, and think I see him down there by the road tending his beloved flowers.

Friends of ours, Ted and Jane Hutchinson, have a coaching ministry to couples as well as pastors and their spouses. Ted was the pastor who married us a little less than 24 years ago. One of the wonderful gifts they gave us, was when Scott was too weak to type, he was able to dictate to Ted his thoughts, counsel, and love to me, Daniel, and Becky before he died. I’d like to share with all of you (with his permission) what he wrote in Scott’s honor a few days after he went Home to be with his Lord.

Well, I’m technologically challenged enough that I can’t copy and paste successfully, so all I can do is give the web addresses, and hope many will be willing to take the time to click on them and read what Ted wrote. The two are: www.soundviewcoaching.com and www.soundviewministries.org and it’s newsletter 409 on April 29.

We’re looking forward to seeing so many family and friends this next weekend as we celebrate Scott’s life. God bless you all, and thank you for so many expressions of love.

Lynne, Daniel, and Becky

P.S. Two songs that are meaning a great deal to me right now are, “I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin, and “There Will Be a Day” by Jeremy Camp.

Many have asked about when a memorial service for Scott might be, so they could make plans to come. Mount Hermon has been so wonderful in allowing our family to use their facilities to remember him.

We will celebrate Scott’s life on what would have been his 51st birthday, Sunday, May 17th, here at Mount Hermon at 4pm. There will be a light supper reception afterwards. There needs to be some kind of count for meal preparation purposes, so if you plan on staying for the supper after the service, please either call Cindy Ritchie at (831) 430-1230, or e-mail her at cindy.ritchie@mounthermon.org.

Thanks so very, very much for the love, prayers, and encouragement all of you have given via this blog. We feel very loved and upheld.

God bless you all,

Lynne, for our family

As many of you already know, Scott went home to be with his Lord a little after 6 this morning.

I was able to be with him most of the night he was readmitted to the ICU on Tuesday night, and all day Wednesday. By 7pm, he was a little more stable, but his BP had been needing increasing pressors to maintain. The ICU medical staff felt he was stable enough for me to go back to the cottage to get some sleep.

Got a call about 11:45pm saying he had coded a couple of times, and that I should come in soon. By the time I arrived, he was more or less stabilized, but non-responsive, and the ventilator and pressors were pretty much maxed out and all that were keeping him going. The ICU staff were wonderful, and gave me a few hours to cry, talk to him, touch him, and decide what to do.

I made the decision to not pursue any escalation of treatment, since he was pretty much not able to respond any more anyway. I called our friends Ken and Mari Harrower, who were able to come up and be with me through to the end. I am so grateful for their presence, love, and encouragement, as well as friends Susan (Anastasia) Schaaf, and Conrad and Kimberly Podsada who were all willing to be wakened in the middle of the night for comfort and counsel.

I watched his BP, oxygen level, and heart rate all spiral down during the early morning hours, until by about 6am, all the values were incompatible with life, and asked them to turn everything off. His deeply depleted systems just could not overcome the massive assault of the sepsis infection and pneumonia.

After a second night of only 1 1/2 hours of sleep, I wasn’t safe to drive home, but really wanted to be with Daniel and Becky, so they could learn from me what had happened. Mari drove me home, while Ken followed in our car. I was able to communicate what they needed to know of their dad’s death, and we had a very painful but precious time of all three of us holding each other and crying for a while.

Thanks so much to all who have expressed their sorrow, love, and comfort as we figure out what life looks like now. We couldn’t have gotten through all of this up till now without the many prayers and support of all of you. The road now looks different, but no less difficult for a while. I am so thankful that Scott is now whole, healed, and in a place of great joy, and I know that I will see him again.

God bless you all,

Lynne, for Scott, Daniel, and Becky

It’s been a day of ups and downs, balances and imbalances, but he’s hanging in there. Pneumonia is now on the list along with the sepsis, so he’s running a fairly high temp at this point (between 102-103F). The heavy duty antibiotics need 24-48 hrs to work before they’ll know how he’s going to come through this. His BP has been very dependent and sensitive to the IV pressor meds, and his O2/CO2 balances have been up and down. One side effect of the BP pressors is the potential of eventual failure of other vital organs, especially the kidneys. This morning they were talking about the possibility of his needing continuous dialysis, but so far, his kidneys are doing more or less ok. 

This morning, Scott and I had a “conversation” where he was mouthing questions such as “what happened,” “why did it all happen,” “what’s the plan,” and “let’s get going!” I was able to explain all I was aware of, and basically told him that all the “plan” was going, and that his job was to keep breathing, and rest so his body could fight the infections.

He is far from out of the woods, but every 12 hrs he keeps holding his own, the more likely he could pull through this infection onslaught when he has so little reserve at the start of the episode. I’m really hoping he might be stable enough that I could go back to the cottage here in S.F. tonight so I can catch up on some sleep. Please continue praying that he can be balanced enough during the night that I can feel comfortable enough to be gone.

Many thanks, many blessings on you all, and much love from all of us.

Lynne

Scott is fighting a massive system-wide infection called sepsis (old term is “blood-poisoning”), and has been trying to pull out of septic shock all night. It’s taking 2 IV pressor infusions to keep his blood pressure up, and he’s been really struggling to maintain an appropriate  O2/CO2 balance with his respirations, needing many adjustments all night long to the ventilator settings to keep him from going deeper into shock. They had to give him meds to paralyze him for a few hours so the ventilator alone would do his breathing to try to correct the acid/base imbalances. He’s on 3 big gun antibiotics to combat the infection, but his anti-coagulation therapy (Coumadin) is very tricky to balance, so he is also at high risk for bleeding right now. 

I’ve been here at the hospital since about 12:30am, got about 1 1/2 hours of sleep in a chair in the waiting room, but when I had to leave the Unit at 7am for them to give report, they thought he seemed to be turning the corner. The ICU doc described him as “critically ill,” and his survival will still be uncertain for some time to come.

Amazingly, his mentation is intact when he is awake. In spite of all the infection and chemical imbalances his body is fighting, he still nods appropriately to my questions, and it bugs the heck out of him that he can’t talk since he is back on the ventilator. They can see he is a fighter, and that is much of the reason he is still alive.

Thank you all, SO MUCH, for you prayers. God’s peace has definitely been there through all of this uncertain night. Life is hard, but God is good.

Love from all the Halversons

Talked with one of the Nurse Practitioners at the ICU who said Scott had coded not 5 minutes after he got to the Unit. I asked her if I should come back up tonight. She said he’s doing ok right now, but he’s still really struggling to breathe and would be back on the ventilator soon. She thought it would be good for me to come up tonight.

I’ll be leaving soon (around10:45 or so) to return to UCSF. Please pray. . .

Well, not only did Scott not come home as scheduled today, but as of 9:15 this evening, he’s had to be readmitted to the ICU for respiratory distress.

I came up to S.F. this morning, after being delayed here at home all day yesterday waiting for the hospital bed, oxygen set up, etc to arrive. He was beginning to have a little trouble breathing and needing more frequent suctioning, but some frequent respiratory therapy treatments seemed to help, and a chest x-ray showed no extra fluid in his lungs. The decision was made to keep him overnight, watch him, and discharge him in the morning. 

Since I was expecting him to come home, I didn’t come prepared to stay overnight  in the city, so around 6:30, since he seemed to be doing a little better, I headed for home. Hadn’t arrived at home for more than 10-15 minutes or so, and got a call saying he had gotten worse very quickly during the evening, and was being sent to the 13th floor Moffitt ICU. They didn’t feel I needed to turn around and return tonight, but I’m expecting a call from the ICU medical team sometime tonight with an update and a hopeful cause of the problem.

Please pray for a quick diagnosis and resolution of the respiratory problem, and for peace and comfort for Scott, as his road home just got who knows how much longer.

Thanks so much for all your prayers, love, support and encouragement.

In hope, Lynne for the Halversons

Just wanted to put out a quick update, as well as start trying to line up help for the many things necessary as Scott come home.

We’ve been told they expect him to be discharged to home on Tuesday, but knowing how many things still need to fall into place, it could be 24-48 hrs later. A few medical issues, as well as transportation and equipment issues have to be resolved and in place just to get him home.

This afternoon, three friends - Dale and Joanna Pollock, and Clarke Hall - all came over to help me move unnecessary furniture out and rearrange our bedroom so that all the big medical equipment being delivered tomorrow morning will now fit. Thank you, all 3 of you, for the much needed help!

A big need will be for help in maybe a couple of 2-4 hr chunks each day for people who can just be with Scott and take care of some basic comfort needs - no medical care, in order to ease up my burden to attend to the multitudes of other details that need attention. If you are able and willing to help with any of this, please call Cindy Ritchie at 430-1230 to leave your name and number, and she’ll get back to you about scheduling some times. We’ll start by only scheduling a few days at a time so we can evaluate how it’s going as we figure out what life at home is going to look like with Scott at home.

God has been answering so many prayers re: our finanial needs (and how!), but we’re still waiting to hear officially that the transition from the old to the new insurance has taken place and gone smoothly.

Please pray for wisdom in being able to have everything that will be needed in place before he leaves the hospital.

God bless you all, and thank you so much for the prayers, the encouragement, and so much help.

Lynne, for Scott, Daniel, and Becky

Hello to all our faithful friends and family who continue to support us spiritually, financially, emotionally, and practically in so many, many ways. Scott is making amazing progress after 2 weeks out of the ICU, and the case worker and medical staff are deep in the process of making all necessary preparations for him to be discharged to home soon - possibly within the next few days to a week if all details come together.

He’s been 2 days now without the feeding tube, and has been able to take in enough oral nutrition (with the help of high calorie and protein drinks) to keep the tube out. PT is working hard at increasing his mobility and endurance, and today he was able to sit up high in the neuro chair for over 2 hours - longest time up since before he went into the ICU. His room is up on the 14th floor of UCSF and at the end of the hall facing towards the Golden Gate Bridge and Park. We rolled him in the chair out to the wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling picture window where he had an incredible view and ate lunch. No fainting or dizzyness - yay! So this is another huge step in getting him mobilized and upright.

There was some discussion of possibly closing up his trach before he went home to let him breathe through normal channels, but the ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) docs feel he is not yet able to handle the respiratory secretions adequately to prevent pneumonia from occuring. Evidently, respiratory sequellae and problems can occur for up to a year after a patient having pulmonary clots of the magnitude and seriousness that Scott had. Hopefully, as secretions do continue to decrease (which they definitely are), he’ll be able to have the trach closed at some time in the not too distant future.

Within a few days we’ll be getting several items of medical equipment delivered to our home, including a hospital bed, oxygen tanks, and much more. We’re hoping Scott will be ready for a reclining wheelchair before he leaves the hospital, because if he’s not, there will be no way to get him out of the bed and bedroom for a change of scenery. Please pray that he’ll be strong enough in time, otherwise it could be weeks at home before there’s enough documentation to justify ordering it (and insurance paying for it!).

Speaking of insurance, there are still a lot of things that need to fall into place in the right order and right timing in the transition between the old and the new insurances. We are trusting that God in His sovereign power will pull all things together at just the right time to provide for our needs, as He already has so many, many times through all of this.

Another prayer request would be for the whole issue of help for me at home with caring for Scott’s many needs - that it will all be figured out in the right timing. There are several possibilities being looked at, but no certainty or definite decisions available yet.

Enough for this blog note, but hopefully, if he has adequate energy and time, the next blog might even be written by Scott himself!

God bless you all, and our deepest gratitude to all of you.

Much love, from Lynne for the Halversons