too slow for comfort

My dad is still on the respirator. We’re all getting a little more worried each day. Yesterday they took him off all medication except his painkillers, to see whether he would wake up on his own. Unfortunately he fights the respirator as he’s waking up(who wouldn’t, with a tube stuck down your throat?), getting too distraught and tiring out, so they have to sedate him again.

We had a family conference with the doctor, he sounded a bit puzzled but not seriously concerned about the respirator, and assured us that my dad’s blood tests indicate he should stay on it – he is not breathing enough to supply oxygen to his blood in sufficient quantities. To add to it, his breathing tube is showing some yellowish discharge which raises flags of pneumonia. The game plan is to continue trying to wake him every four hours, and hope for a lucid response.

It’s getting more horrible by the day, I am getting visions of a long and complicated recovery. But I guess alive and slow recovery is better than any alternatives.