Although my dad's physical symptoms appear to be progressing toward the positive, he appears to be suffering from ICU Delerium. ICU Delerium has been described to us as something your body goes through in a hospital when you lack adequate amounts of sleep. This has led to my dad feeling kind of bummed out about still being in the hospital, which is completely understandible if you ask me. As far as the rest, on Monday he still had a high temperature despite no cultures showing any new forms of bacterial infection. Again, this may be drug-induced, but the infectious disease team continues to assess this situation. Also, on Monday, they moved him into a chair, but he was only able to last about 5 minutes there due to his back pain. Dad had a "Trache Oxygen Mask Test" as well. This is when they remove the ventilator from the trache and place an oxygen mask directly over the trache. 15 minutes was all the longer he was able to last, but it's a step in the right direction. Another thing to note is that Dad no longer needs any form of dialysis, as his kidneys are back to functioning properly.
Tuesday: During the night, Dad's oxygen saturations fluctuated and he still had a temperature. The reasons behind both of these symptoms remains unknown. Dr. Tate (again, Dad's head doctor) decided it would be best for my dad's mental state to be moved out of the MICU and placed back into the respiratory care unit on 7th floor, where a frog balloon (courtesy of the 7th floor nurses!) was in his room awaiting his arrival. According to one nurse, there was quite the debate over who would get the oportunity to be his head nurse for the day, because he is so well liked in the 7th floor unit. Dad pretty much slept all day today, only waking occasionally to scan the room, then drop his head back down onto his pillow. So needless to say, there wasn't much communication from him today except for an occasional smile or head shake. Heidi took off for Minnesota again to return to her job and I came back here to be with Mom. When I came into the room and said my hello's to Dad, he was getting his teeth brushed. When this was finished, he turned his head toward me and smiled, as if to show his shiny pearly whites. One more thing to note was that the nurses told us that Dad is down to 158 pounds. A meare fraction of the 198 he tipped the scales at when he arrived in late February. His arms and legs might be thinner than mine now, but he's still got some meat on his stomach, so I, personally am not concerned with his weight yet. I'll be keeping in touch with you guys every night...the reason this one is for the past two days is because Heidi had a migrane last night, I was back in Coon, and Mom isn't exactly "tech savvy" to say the least. Keep in mind that any comments you leave can be relayed back to Dad now that he's conscious, so feel free to leave him a post!
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