December 11th, PM Update

We last saw dad at the 8pm visit and he had the little voice box shield over his trake so that he was able to talk....it was soooooo awesome!!! We haven't heard him talk in what seems like forever! He is a soft talker anyway and with the trake it was really soft but man it was so much better then trying to read lips.

Some information we found out:

• At the 6pm visit they completely removed the Ventilator machine from bedside. He hasn't been on it the last couple of days, just on the oxygen and they felt secure enough to not have it on standby anymore.
• As far as being on any meds through an I V he isn't on any. Although he is still on medicine that is given to him on a schedule, those are for: Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Preventatives for-stomach ulcers and constipation, also on Insulin (she said everyone in there is on that). He has other meds on stand by, as needed such as something for pain, to sleep, etc
• I asked about what the plan was for the elevated white blood cell count, she said that right now they are just monitoring it closely because although it is high it is not dangerously high and they feel that his body is doing a good job fighting it himself. They don't want to put him on an antibiotic as long as his body is doing this so that he doesn't build up a resistance to the antibiotic incase they really need it for something later on.
• I asked about him sitting up during physical therapy, the nurse said that they moved him to a sitting position and were able to let go for just a few seconds then had to hold on to him again. The dialysis was there and that trumps physical therapy so they weren't able to do anything else with him.

My mom keeps discribing dad as being very stoic, which seems to be a very appropriate discription. I think personally now that he is awake more it is all coming to a head everything that has happened and whats also going on now. Example he asked us tonight why his legs are paralyzed...he can move them a very little bit, although not like his arms, so we tried to talk to him about that some and physical therapy, he also said that he is overall very week and he doesnt like that feeling, also mentioned that his chest feels like it has been through a violent brawl. Again asked what happen and why he feels so bad....we choose our words carefully on what we tell him and not tell him at this point. On top of it all, just being in ICU all day and night and not sleeping due to what he now discribes as halusinsions (sp)...we have been told that this is most likely from the medicines that he is on. We talked with him some about this also. I can only imagine what all his mind and body are going through day after day. I did notice a very small difference of a sparkle of himself again with the 8pm visit with the voice shield as apposed to not having it in at 6pm.

Tonight we showed him how people have came up to show their support and that we have people all over the world praying for him, calling, emailing, etc and his response was "Wow, that's alot of thank you notes to write later on." We got a good laugh out of that.

He has told us several times that he has felt the prayers as he lays there and knows that God is taking care of him and that it is through Him that he is still alive. So thank you a million times over from all of us and now from my dad also, for all the prayers and support, it has made more of a difference then we could ever express!

Mom will not be there between the 2-6 visits as she is getting a haircut and so excited about it. ;-)

God Bless!!!