Decent day...

Rob had a pretty decent day overall today. He rested a good portion of the afternoon and evening. When I came in to visit and found his eyes closed for the third visit in a row, I thought he was heavily sedated again. They hadn't given him anything extra, he was just tired. I touched his face a little and he tried to lick my hand and then grinned. So the little trickster was faking it...at least at that visit anyway.

He didn't have much adjustment to his vent settings today but his numbers were looking great when I left tonight so I think he'll have some good vent progress tomorrow. The tube in his lungs wasn't draining much of anything today so I think they plan to remove that tomorrow. It seems to have done the job it was intended to do. They also removed his arterial line this afternoon. This was the line that allowed them to draw blood easily for labs. It basically had a valve on it to prevent them from having to stick him every time they needed blood. It also constantly monitored his blood pressure. Since he has been pretty stable, they are only drawing blood for labs every other day instead of every day. So they won't have to stick him near as often now. And they put a cuff on to monitor his blood pressure. That is automatically taken every 30 minutes by the machine.

He is also being taken off the Ativan (sedation) and Haldol (calming) medications over the next few days. They will slowly switch him to a drug called Seroquel. This will be in pill form but will have to be crushed up and put into his feeding tube until he can start swallowing pills. This drug is used to keep him more mellow and calm so he doesn't get worked up. Mostly the same thing the Ativan and Haldol were used for. They don't like to keep them on Haldol for very long because it can cause heart problems if used for a longer period of time. They did an EKG to check for any problems and Rob was just fine. But this is a good change for him either way.

The doctors in the IPCU would like to see his vent settings a little more before they transfer him to that unit. So the move will be a little later.

The social worker came today to talk a little about what will happen once he is finally discharged from the University. He will need to go to a rehab unit for a week or two to work on getting his strength back up. There are several choices of units that he could go to, including sites in Ottumwa and Des Moines. So we'll make that decision when we get closer to that move. But for now, it's a ways off.

So even though he didn't have any vent setting changes today, he made quite a bit of progress in other areas. Enough to keep me satisfied anyway. :)

Kelly