Minor Update & Thank You

First of all, I want to mention a few things that Layne hasn't. He tends to be a lot less wordy than I am and that's probably a good thing, but I'm going to keep blabbing on here either way and add a few points that, alongside the other news, seem rather minor but I feel should be mentioned:

• The chest tube in Jenni's left side is useless at this point, and they clamped it off yesterday. The doctors intend to remove it today. I asked if removing it would be more traumatic than leaving it but Dr. Katz explained that if it isn't functioning, it is more dangerous in than out (and Judi agreed). Out it will go.
• Jenni's labs are showing signs of improvement in both the blood and the kidneys. The kidneys are probably only improving because of the dialysis (because she is still on several of the drugs that negatively affect the kidneys), but the improved blood work is a good sign, in my humble opinion. Yesterday was also the second day in a row that Jenni didn't need a blood transfusion.
• Jenni's temperature dropped yesterday morning, so they put her under a heated blanket. Her temperature returned to normal, but I hope they keep the heated blanket. If she was awake and aware right now, she would want it on, so I hope it will still be there when I get there in the morning.

Now that those points are out there, I want to thank everyone who has been checking on Jenni...

• everyone who has continued to pray
  
• those of you who have helped accumulate the 7000+ visits over the last three days that I could check the numbers (and probably several times that number before Google Analytics started counting)
  
• the people in all of the 18 countries who have visited the site (USA, Brazil, Canada, Finland, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Panama, Israel, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Australia, Latvia, Spain, Denmark
• the people in all of the 45 states who have visited
• the 75 followers and 157 people who have signed up for email updates
  
• the people whose traffic has generated over $1500 through Adsense to help pay the family's expenses as we stand vigil nearby
• the people who have donated money, both online and in person... unfortunately I've lost count of the amount... but it has helped

 I hope I feel like updating more often. Describing this as a rollercoaster of emotions would be the underestimate of... the year? the decade? my lifetime? However, I feel confident today that things will be okay... I am not in control. We all know who is... and I trust Him.

And I want to give Layne a special thank you for taking over "updating the peeps" in the times I've been a wreck.

Blog Update, My Amazement, and My Gratitude

First of all, a few features that have been added:

• A "New Comments" widget in the sidebar... now you can see the first few lines of the five most recent comments no matter which post the comments are posted on.
• More pictures added to the picture page

Second, your traffic generated $218 yesterday ($1242 since we started this). Coupled with the extremely generous donations, I haven't stressed over money the way I might have without this resource and your generosity.

Third, you would not believe the cool stuff you can do with Google Analytics when you're stuck in a waiting room just itching to do something to get your mind off of everything that is going on. I added the Google Analytics html to Jenni's blog Sunday night and yesterday I found these facts that you might find interesting. I certainly did. On Monday...

• the site received 1,235 visits.
• each visitor stayed an average of 4 minutes and 16 seconds and visited 2.97 pages before moving on.
• most of the people who followed a link to the site, followed it through www.facebook.com.
• the site received visitors from 30 states (84% from NC but quite a few from Georgia, New York, Texas, South Carolina, California, and Florida as well... no more than 6 from any other state)
• the site received visitors from Spain, Finland, Brazil, Switzerland, Latvia, and Canada

I am amazed at the outpouring of love and support from all over the United States and all around the world... and it is probably more widespread than this post suggests because I didn't insert the html code until March 15th. All of these stats came from just one day...the blog ran from March 9th to March 15th without any tracking.

To everyone who has spread the word about Jenni, you have my thanks.