Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Progress

My dad is finally starting to wake up. After three nerve-wracking days he opened his eyes, is nodding or shaking his head for yes/no, and can grasp hands or wiggle his toes. This is all very promising because it indicates he hasn’t had a stroke while on the heart machine. He may have some cognitive deficits for a while, and perhaps some permanent impacts, but we won’t know that until he is fully conscious and can have neurological tests. It was such a huge relief to have him actually focus his eyes on me when I asked if he could see me. He still can’t see very much, he said he couldn’t see my brother about an hour earlier, but hopefully this indicates he is improving steadily.

He is still on the respirator but the doctor said he is mostly using his own efforts to breathe. They may try to take him off the respirator today. Providing his pneumonia is not too advanced, he may be off it by the end of the day. This will be a huge comfort for him, he is in obvious distress from it.

The worst part is seeing other heart surgery patients come into the ICU, wake up, and get moved out to the step-down unit all within 24 hours. Although it is not unusual for patients to take a bit longer to wake up, four days is a little on the extreme side.

We are all exhausted. We take my mom home in the afternoons and try to dissuade her from making a long visit in the evening – she is also physically frail and needs to rest. We will all feel a ton better once he can communicate and breathe on his own.

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