Up the hill

I haven't posted in a couple of days because things have been pretty stable, but I thought I'd do an update just to let folks know where we are. In terms of consciousness: dad had a friend there last night who said he was able to squeeze her hand, opened his eyes and nod in answer to questions. The nurse tells me that Dad continues to obey requests that they make. They have him on a little bit of sedative because the ventilator makes him anxious. In terms of the ventilator he continues on it. Yesterday they turned off the breathing function to allow him to breath on his own. After about three hours he got a little anxious and started to hyperventilate so they turned the machine back on. The nurse explained to me that he needs to be able to breathe on his own for about 10 hours. Once he can do that, they will test his blood and make sure that it has the proper levels and THEN they will actually remove the tube. The nurse said they will try the test breathing again today and see how he does.  Kidney's continue to produce only minimal urine, though he is still on dialysis. Its unclear to me about the prognosis of the kidneys, and whether dialysis will need to be a continual part of his recovery or not. I think at this point we simply don't know. His liver, however, does seem to be improving. The numbers from that are coming down (good) and his color is improving. A fact remarked on by several people. So it steady as he goes, with most things moving in the right direction and nothing really going backwards at this point. The removal of the RVAD has been pretty much a success and his blood pressure remains good. They have started weaning his heart medication getting to a little more than half of what he was on right after the surgery.

I have booked a flight to go out over fall break Oct 13-17 so I will head out there and see dad and talk to the doctors.