11/9 PM - good news!

Today has been a great day.  This morning around 10 the respiratory folks removed Dad's breathing tube and he's been breathing on his own since with no problems!  It's great to see him without that tube hanging out of his mouth.  He's talking up a storm, though we can't really understand a lot of what he's saying.  We know his throat is irritated because of the tube, and there's probably still some confusion going on, but we're able to understand words here and there.  He knew the color of my shirt, and how many fingers we were holding up.  He's not quite sure how he feels about the blue toenails, but he's smiling and trying hard to let us know he's ok.

We saw movement in both arms and both legs.  His right side is still pretty weak, but he's moving all over the place with his left arm and leg.  BJ tried to explain why he shouldn't touch the tubes he still has (a feeding tube in his nose as well as oxygen, and the two drains in his head) and we think he understood, but unfortunately his arms still need to be restrained when we're not all there.  It obviously frustrates him, but the nurse can't be next to him every minute so that's how it has to be.

Next up on his road to recovery:  the neurosurgeon plans to clamp the two drains very early Monday morning, and then will do a catscan a few hours later to check out the ventricles in his brains.  If he can handle the pressure in his head, they'll remove the drains.  If not, he may need a shunt put in.  It's a little bit of a wait and see thing.  It may be a week or two weeks before they'll know how he's doing with the pressure.

We're all feeling good.  The stress level has come down some, and I think we'll all sleep well tonight!