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The long
night was longer than expected as I did not get much sleep. I wandered back to ICU around 1:30AM. George was heavily sedated but I had been
told he would respond to nurses’ queries about pain levels, etc. by a nod of
the head. I was not able to get a
response from him by my talking but I did what he had asked me to do before
surgery – stroke his forehead. He would
know by that touch that I was with him.
About 4AM he
signaled he loved me by using his left hand and signing the American Sign
Language symbol for “I Love You”. I
teared up from this loving, gentle gesture.
Around 6AM
they started to un-sedate him to get ready to see if he would breathe on his
own. The first thing he did was signal
that he wanted a pen to write with. The
respiratory therapist took a piece of paper towel, put it on a clip board and
he proceeded to write, “Won’t CPAP help with this?” He really wanted his CPAP machine. Due to the
fact that he will still have an Ng tube in his nose it won’t be possible to use
the machine just yet. He proceeded to
indicate he wanted to write and he managed to effectively communicate a few
things.
His
breathing was labored because he struggles without the CPAP, but as the
sedative wore off the breathing was at a steady rate. It was eleven before the tube came out as
there were a couple of other more urgent needs for the RT to respond to.
Little by
little over the day a few of the tubes have been removed. As of this moment he was one arm free of any
tubes. He has a respirator on as it is
the only thing that will enable a little it of oxygen push. They have decreased his fluids to a very low
point but his heart rate is a little bit high so they will keep an eye on that
to see if they need to push more fluids.
For him to make it down to a regular room he will need to become more
stable without lots of fluids.
Sara spent
the morning here, Becke arrived and spent the afternoon and evening, Keith
stopped by for a short visit. I even
escaped to get dinner with Becke as we had to leave at the 3PM shift
change. It was nice to get warmed up
after being in a chilled room for the day.
Although his
body temperature felt very cold most of the day, he has been comfortable (it is
58 degrees in the room and the rest of us are freezing!) As the day progressed his body temperature
increased and he started pulling his gown down from the neck to the point now
where it is only covering him from the waist down. I have accused him of becoming a Chippendale
and told him if he tried to uncover much more we would have to give him a towel
to cover his privates. The nurse finally
brought in some ice water and washcloths so we could try to get him comfortable
with his completely undressing himself.
He has been
aware of his surroundings all day long.
He is able to speak a little which is surprising considering the
intubation period. I am not sure he is
resting very much as he tries to cough up mucus without much success.
The charge
nurse just came in to ask about the CPAP and will see if they can fit him with
one of theirs tonight. I know George
would really appreciate that.
I have been
kept very busy today helping to monitor him as the nurses are often called away
from the station outside the door. I am
not sure there will be much rest for me tonight although I may try to escape
for at least a few hours and get a little bit of sleep.
Hopefully
tomorrow more progress will be made with no setbacks so we can move at some
point in the day to a better room (with a bed for me!)
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