Be Alert, we need more lerts!

So dad seems to be moving toward greater and greater alertness. He apparently opens his eyes and will nod his head to answer questions. He is probably not technically awake. The Glasgow Coma Scale has three categories. Opening eyes, verbal response, and motor responses. This weekend, he scored a 1 in the first two categories and a 4 in motor skills. This put him at 6 which is considered a severe coma. Yesterday, however, he scored a 3 in opening eyes, a 1 in verbal response (which is the case for anyone on a respirator) and a 4 in motor skills, This gives him a 8 on the scale. This actually puts him on the lower end of a moderate coma. While comas are probably not good, the reason I use this scale is because it is one way of charting dad's progress. Essentially, he was back to where he was shortly after the surgery. The first day after the surgery we saw him at this level. Then his kidney's failed to work properly and we moved down the scale. Hopefully, we will continue to move up the scale and eventually leave the coma state. At this point the numbers are more optimistic then they have been since Sept 7.

Update: I just talked to the nurse again this afternoon. It seems that dad will now squeeze a hand on command. This moves his GCS (motor skills) up to 6, which gives him a total of 10  which still puts him in the moderate coma phase. They tell me kidneys are not producing much urine and liver numbers continue to rise slowly which is not good. They are tentatively talking about taking the RVAD out on Friday. I'm waiting for a call from the doctor and will get a sense of what's going on then.