Dear Family and Friends of Loren, Jenn, James, Nancy, and Tom: Five days have passed since Loren was admitted into the hospital. He's come a long way, though none of you would believe it if you were witnessing him for the first time. He's very lucky to to be alive, let alone to be distancing himself from harms reach. He's putting up one hell of a fight, no surprise to the majority of you. Loren has been progressing very well in virtually every measure. His temperatures and cranial pressures have fluctuated each and every day, but just when one or the other has reached a level of concern, it drops back down to normal readings. Not once has either reflected an immediate threat to his short or long term health. So far, so good by virtually every barometer. Yesterday Loren breathed on his own on two separate occasions: once for about a half hour, and again later for over two hours. Since exiting surgery he has had a machine breathing for him through a tube that runs from it into his lungs. The tube is still there during his exercises, though it's been Loren breathing through it. His doctors may well have removed it by now if it weren't for some of the facial fractures he received. They've elected to leave it in longer than they would with someone else who has being doing as well as he is by all other measures. I spoke with Nancy a couple of hours ago and it looks like tomorrow's the day he's off his ventilator. His doctors will drop his sedation levels appreciatively after they've taken it out and he'll be much more alert. If all goes as anticipated, Loren will have cleared his first and hardest hurdle on his path to wellness by this time tomorrow. The outpouring of support for Loren and Jennifer has been huge. I think we lose track of how many lives we touch upon during our earthly journeys until something like this happens. Many people have contacted Jennifer via phone or email, and sometime tomorrow we'll have a forum for all of you to share messages, photos, stories, etc., with Jenn and everyone else who wants to see Loren get well. Hopefully Loren himself can soon check it out. Please watch for an email from caringbridge.org. (Thanks to Jennifer's niece, Tanya, who gave us the heads up.) Thanks to all of you who've responded to me personally. And please, I encourage everyone to post a little something when Loren's message board is up and running. Sincerely, Steve Porsborg