tuesday, february 12

the doctors decided to turn off dad's paralytic and sedation drugs over the last couple of days.

the rollercoaster has been full of twists and turns involving dad's kidneys and lungs. he had a small case of pneumonia along with a fever. at the end of last week, they were planning on turning off the paralytic and sedation drugs, but dad worsened for a couple of days, so it was postponed until the beginning of this week as his numbers stabilized.

so, beginning sunday evening, we've all been on pins and needles waiting for the drugs to be flushed out of his body and for him to regain awareness, reflexes, and movement. it's been a tense and high-stressed few days.

his kidneys are still having a tough time functioning to their full capacity. they aren't filtering the way they need to be, so that's effecting his body's ability to get rid of the sedatives and effects of the paralytics so it's taking a bit of time for dad to awake. if over the next couple of days his kidneys continue to decrease in their abilities to filter, then dialysis might be considered to help flush out everything and give his kidneys a fresh start. we hope if this needs to happen that his kidneys snap back into shape once the dialysis helps give them a boost.

some great things happened last night and this afternoon. at one point in the evening yesterday, dad fluttered his eyes open for a quick couple of seconds. my mom, sister, and his nurse got to see it happen. he also was attempting to move his mouth around...after this, the rest of the night and this morning were pretty uneventful. he was still pretty well sedated.

today, the doctors took him off of most of his IVs. he still has a small drip of morphine, saline, and his food is going into his belly. but mostly everything else has been removed. they're no longer checking his blood pressure continuously - they replaced the monitor with a cuff that will be checked hourly. his temperature is fine. his heartrate is in the 90s. he's still breathing with the ventilator, but as he awakens more, they'll begin to ween him off of that. so there was a LOT of positive movement today. prayers are being answered.

this afternoon, he started blinking his eyes underneath his eyelids. he would just squint them when we asked him questions like, "dad, blink if you can hear me." or "do you know how much we've missed you?" it was like a call and response. it has been an exhilarating feeling to see those sweet little movements after 9 days of seeing him immobile and so sedated. these are all AMAZINGLY positive things that are happening. true answered prayers. everytime i round the corner to his room, i'm hoping i'll walk in to see his eyes fully open.

the doctors are really pleased with the progress being made, although things still are very critical. his kidneys and his lungs need to kick it in. we still need to find out what the fuzzy spots in his chest are from a CT scan...there are a myriad of things that are still highly concerning; however, everything over the past 9 days has shown us that miracles are taking place all around us. it's also very important that dad takes the cue to pick up breathing on his own once the ventilator is turned down, and eventually, completely turned off.

wake up, terry. wake up!