saturday

Hello everyone,

Tracy left today and I am getting ready to go tomorrow although I will be back next week for spring break. It is so hard to leave with my dad still in the ICU and so many unanswered questions. I think we are all going a little crazy, but we are strong, like my dad so we are all still hanging in.

There are a few new things to report but still a lot of unknowns...my dad was finally taken off of the ventilator a few days ago! hurray! but he seems to have pneumonia which is really scary as people can have serious complications from this especially someone in a frail condition like my dad. We are so happy to have him off that freaky thing as seeing him fight it yet again is really hard. He is breathing on his own and is just using a little oxygen in the nose although he has a lot of secretions and isn't really able to cough well yet so he is getting suctioning every few hours which has got to irritate your throat.

He is still having seizures. Tracy and I saw a really active one last night and my mom and I saw 2 smaller ones today. The nurse said he had one this morning as well so the doctor has upped his seizure meds. The one we saw today hardly affected his heart rate, pulse or breathing so who knows how many of those he has been having since they check on him every hour and when his monitor registers some activity so he could be having small seizures by himself. The seizures make him really tired as well as the seizure meds having a slight sedative effect so he is sleeping a lot of the time. He has not spoken yet and we are not sure if he can. Last night I thought I saw him mouth bathroom as he tried to get out of bed with what little strength he has. We are not really seeing a lot of response from him. He can squeeze our hands, wiggle his toes and nod yes and no only selectively. I think he is really in and out of awareness. We just don't really know yet. Dr. Shallop is going to do a CT scan tomorrow which will hopefully tell us more but we don't know that even.

We are kinda back at the beginning and this is frustrating for everyone, only 2 weeks ago we were planning to take my dad home. We are so tired and a little lost, very angry and confused and just trying to get through everyday. We go to the hospital 3 times a day to be with him and that is all we can do.

We will update the blog when we know more. Thanks to everyone being patient with us and sending good thoughts and prayers. Any one close by please keep an eye on my mom this week, i'll be back on monday the 16th.

xoxox
Carrie