We've received this good news about Mike Pepper's condition:
As many of you now know, Mike had a brain aneurism the week before Christmas. He checked into the hospital on Sunday December 21st and after numerous tests it was confirmed that he had a brain aneurism. Other than significant headaches, lower back pains and shooting pains in his legs, he was fine. Certainly lucky since approximately 50% that have brain aneurisms never make it to the hospital. Mike was fully tested that Monday and on Tuesday he had an 8 hour surgery to repair the aneurism. Everything looked good up until Christmas Day when they found slight swelling of the brain, which they sedated him in order to slow the swelling down. Mike was fine up until that Sunday morning when he had significant brain swelling and additional bleeding. He was then rushed into surgery to stop the swelling and bleeding, which he then went into a coma. Sunday(28th) and up through New Year's Day he remained in the coma, in critical condition and on life support systems. On New Year's Day the doctors saw positive signs that the swelling was slightly going down so they started to reduce the heavy medication to allow Mike to try to wake up on his own. Mike woke up a day later and since then there has been daily positive updates on his condition. The swelling has gone down significantly and they have taken him off of the life support systems. With that he is fully awake and remembers everything. He's able to move his arms and legs, and is talking(although strained due to the respiratory tube that was down his throat for 6 days).Mike wanted me to let everyone know that he's fine and that he's on the road to recovery. Other than a strong craving for a hamburger and coke, he's doing great. He's actually sitting up today and looking good. His doctors and nurses will continue to monitor his progress closely and the hope is that he will be out of ICU2 and upgraded to a regular room as early as later today or tomorrow. Mike thinks he'll be out in a week - we'll see. Great goal for Mike to have! He's already talking about looking forward to a great spring 2004, as we all are for him.