Day 19...

Rob's blood level is running a little low. His tank needs refilled today. When the body is in critical condition like his is, it doesn't produce blood like it should. And since they have been taking so much of his for tests, he is running a little low. They are going to do a transfusion today to give him 2 units. I asked about the chance of one of us donating to him but his doctor said they don't do that much anymore since the screening process is so strict now than it is just as safe to use blood from the bank as it is a relative. And if we donated to him, they couldn't use it today already because they still have to screen it just the same. So he'll get a couple units from the blood bank today. He probably doesn't want my pregnant blood anyway, even if we were the same blood type. :)

Last night his oxygen level was back up to 50% but they dropped him back to 45% this morning. So hopefully he does well at that level and can keep coming down on the vent settings. He hasn't made huge progress yet but he'll get there. His sedation medication is down to 1 ml per hour. It was as high at 8 ml earlier this week so he's much lower on that now. He hasn't come around much yet but he is taking small steps towards that. Last night I was wiping him down with a wet washcloth because he was breaking his fever and sweating a lot. Every time I took the washcloth by his mouth he tried to grab it to suck it. So I know he's coming around a little more now. Since he has the trache in place they can now swab his mouth with a wet sponge again. He will have to be much more awake to be able to take sips to swallow.

So he's getting there, still very slowly. It's still just a waiting game for the rest of us.

Kelly