Saturday, August 2, 2008

Patient David

David spent most of the afternoon off the sedative, alert, and wanting the breathing tube out. His hands were restrained which was not his favorite but I asked him to be patient and he was.

They took out the breathing tube around 5:30, after several tries earlier where he didn't breathe well enough on his own. Please pray for him to do well on his own in his sleep.

He was able to speak, sort of. The last few days his brain was not letting him speak but I think now it is his throat mainly, as well as needing to recover from all the drugs and the brain pressure.

He did really well at being patient and I am very proud of him. He had to let me suction his mouth, he could answer me with nods of his head only, and he had to put up with all the restraints and discomfort. When he was a baby and could start feeding himself he would take food I fed him out and put it in again, himself. So I think today was challenging as he hasn't changed much in spirit.

We also need to pray he doesn't get pneumonia. He has gotten pretty messed up with losing his ability to swallow yesterday and with fluid drainage from the first surgery, so he got fluid in his lungs. They are checking him carefully but apparently pneumonia can hit fast.

His low level seizure activity seems to have gone away. When they took the grid out we could no longer see the problematic pattern on the EEG. They put on external electrodes which showed nothing; of course those are of course not as sensitive, but the neurologists think he is ok. And he seems like he is not having seizure distress, just weak and needing to heal up.

This is a good day--did I say that before? It was so good to see David improved so much this morning, and also a great moment when Dr Ross said to stop worrying! Thanks for being with us.

P.S. Sorry to be slow in updating. I held David's hand and read to him all afternoon till I was finally exhausted, then came home and ate with the kids and watched a movie.

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