Today was a challenging and emotional day for me. We took the ventilator out. Dad was very responsive and active once we took it out and stopped the sedation. He was writing "massage leg, cell phone, ice cream, water" and was able to mumble words that we could pretty much understand. His memory seems to be good. We started his physical therapy right away and did the basics; stretched his arms and legs. He keeps coughing up quit a bit of blood from the pneumonia and is short of breathe.
We are just taking this day by day. On 12/4 dad couldn't speak as well and he did not pass his speech therapy test. He can't swallow and does not have any gag reflex, so they need to put a feeding tube in through his nose to his stomach. He seemed really tired and was not that responsive today. They will need to keep him in the ICU for a couple more days to keep a close eye on his pneumonia.
Thank you to everyone for all the supportive emails and texts. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to all of them... I have been just super busy. They help me stay positive in this difficult time.
I think the hardest part of this is my dad looks like he is going to pull through but he continues to nod his head "no" every time we mention that he needs to take his high blood pressure medicine to stay alive and not have another stroke. I just hope his mind set changes!
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Hi Megan-
ReplyDeleteI know this is such a hard time for you right now and I completely understand where you are at just being there myself just a few short weeks ago. You are in the middle of this trauma and it is so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you will get there. You are in our thoughts each day and know that you have support of folks all across the country sending you love and good thoughts.
Tina Miely