Sunday. July 14,2013. Day 34 in ICU

Paul is doing much better.  Yesterday and today has brought us so much joy and happiness.  Paul has spent most of  today without assisted breathing from the ventilator.  He sat up in a chair for an hour and a half.  He even had another trip outside.

 

The bronchoscope this morning showed that one of the holes in the trachea is smaller and healing.  The hole that was bigger and required more repair looks okay too.  The chest X-ray this morning showed that the air in the chest cavity has reduced from the size of a 2 liter pop bottle to the size of a can of pop.  The intake and output volume of oxygen is relatively even which means there is less and less air escaping into his chest cavity and actually going in and out of the lungs.  As the doctor told me this morning, we are on the road to a very slow recovery, not out of the woods yet, but things are looking better then they have in the past few weeks.  I had the doctor draw on a picture of the trachea where the holes are located, it was interesting to learn that they actually removed a rib in one of his surgeries.  I remember the surgeon mentioning a rib, but it never registered in my brain that they removed the whole rib.  That certainly explains why he continues to have so much pain on his right side.

Paul has not had a fever for several days and his other vitals are getting better little by little....blood sugar, sodium levels and oxygen levels although not back to normal, they seem to be improving.

Thank you for all the cards, get well wishes, emails, prayers, positive energy and smiles across the miles.

I can not wait to start collecting all the hugs in person.  It has been a very long, tiring month.
Jo