Tracheostomy complete...

I talked over everything with them this morning to talk about the pros and cons of the tracheostomy. The pros outweigh the cons so the best choice was to go ahead with the procedure. The doctor said he handled the procedure very well. They were able to sedate him and give him enough medication to do the procedure right in his SICU room without going to the Operating Room. He's breathing well through the trache with the ventilator assistance.

His sedation level was down to a 2 this morning. Yesterday he was at a 4 and Monday was an 8 so they are able to bring him down quite a bit so far. He had a huge amount of sedation before now so I'm happy that he's able to have less now. They can keep bringing that down now that he's on the trache and won't been to be sedated so much to keep him comfortable. The breathing tube is now out of his mouth and he can start to recover from that. He's going to have a sore throat for a while because it's very uncomfortable to have that tube in place. He had it in place for 2 1/2 weeks so that is quite a long time to have a tube down your throat. But now he can recover from that. Once he comes out of sedation a little more, he can start to write again to communicate. During the trials when they remove the vent from the trache, they can put a cover over the trache to allow him to talk. I can't even describe how happy I will be to hear his voice again. I'm sure he's ready to talk after listening to me blab for so long. He looks so much more comfortable now and seems to be resting quietly. With the tube out, he no longer has to have tape across his face to keep that in. They can now do a good shave job and shave the hair where the tape was on his face. Right now, he has a nice set of pork chops but I'm not going to give him the chance to ask to leave it like that. :) I'm happy to say that he looks more like himself again without so many tubes and tape around his face.

Our Pastor from Williamsburg visited again this morning to sit with me for a while and have a prayer for him. He has so many people praying for him that he can't help but get better. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers. They are working and God is blessing us each day with a better day than the last. God's plan is in progress and we trust him to guide us through this just like everything else. This will all be a memory very soon.

Kelly