Dad seems in good spirits today. He's talking up a storm, but we really can't understand most of what he's saying. Every once in a while he'll say something very clearly, like "I don't know" or "I guess so", and he said "exactly" to the nurse when she asked him if his name is Brad.
His breathing, while still much better than it was, isn't as good today as it was yesterday. We have been telling him to try not to talk so much and focus on the breathing, and he'll stop for a minute or so, but then starts again. His nurse Carol has him sitting up as straight as she can, but he keeps leaning over to one side, and that makes it harder on his lungs. He's been able to cough pretty well, and that's something he wasn't able to do much of the last time they took the tube out. Every time we hear him cough, we tell him to keep it up. We know he understands at least some of what we're saying, and he'll respond and (usually) do what we ask, but I think he's getting annoyed with us telling him what to do all the time. He makes faces at us as if to say "I'm fine...there's nothing to worry about."
We cut our visits shorter today so we can allow him to rest. His neurosurgeon impressed upon us yesterday that he will need quite a bit of sleep now that he's more active and will start undergoing some physical and speech therapy. We probably will make one more visit tonight, so we can see how he's doing and check in with the night nurse.
Heather and I are both leaving tomorrow. I think BJ will be here til Monday or Tuesday, and Kate is staying til the end of the week. BJ and Heather will probably be back before Thanksgiving, and I'll be back the following week. It's going to be hard to leave but obviously we all need to get back to some semblance of regular life. A special thanks to my friend Shea, who dropped everything that Wednesday to stay at my house with my furry crew so I could fly down that night to be with everyone. I'm sure she'll be happy to go home tomorrow afternoon!
I'm hoping that whoever is here will take on writing the daily updates, but if not, I'll do my best to write them from home.
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