Dear Family and Friends,
Today has been a quiet day. David did not sleep real well last night and so spent a couple of hours sleeping this morning. All his energy seems to be going into his breathing at this point.
The nurses and doctors feel that they may have had him overdo things yesterday and today he is exhausted. They are giving him a rest day and plan to resume Physical Therapy tomorrow.
David had to have another bronchoscopy at 2 PM today to remove secretions. The bronchoscopy revealed that the stents remain in good position. The secretions are a result of having stents, having a sore and irritated wind pipe and inactivity. All these give him more secretions than normal and he does not have the strength yet to cough them all up. The nurses feel this is pretty normal after being on the ventilator for 17 days.
David has not been communicating much today. They feel this is due to the exhaustion.
David has still not been using his right arm and hand at all.
We are thank ful that his white blood count is back to normal (elevated count often indicates infection) and his blood gases (indicates the effectiveness of his breathing) are also normal.
We have recently reached the point where the following tubes are not needed: one chest tube, the arterial line, and the central line. It is exciting to have progress in de tubing this young man!! Let's see.....we have four tubes left....
Praise for David's ability to breathe on his own, for no known infections, for the stents being in in the same place, and for some communication.
Pray for increased strength and his right arm to improve.
Karen
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I have always believed that God gave us a body that heals slowly that we can glorify him, and we can see that he is great and powerful, he can heal instantanly, or over a period of time. DaVid has that factor of youth and never had to contend with drugs or alcohol in his life. All of these are good signs to be sure, but sometimes it's all God and nothing more,
ReplyDeleteIn time, I hope that DaVid will learn how to suction himself out by himself. Better still, learn how to cough up the gunk himself. What kind of trach are they giving him? I use the Jackson #6 but they are hot in widespread use anymore. The Shelly's are trach tubes in use the most,
Get a hold of me if I can help.
I hold you all still in prayer