Wednesday & Thursday, June 3rd-4th

Mom and I haven't been able to stay in the room with Dad very much over these past two days because every time he sees us, he makes attempts to sit up out of bed and pull out his ventilator. I think all he wants to do right now is go home at any cost. However, he isn't very mentally competent at this time so I'm sure if he knew what was going on he would know to calm down and just rest. On Thursday, Mom and I went in to see him and when Mom grabbed his hand he woke up and immediately his O2 stats plummeted, his respiratory rate nearly doubled, and he tried to pull his ventilator out. At this point we have decided that by him seeing us, it's just making him want to leave more. From a medical standpoint, they upped his Ativan dosage to 2 mg which has pretty much sedated him. When Dad is sleeping his oxygen saturations are much better and he requires a lot less attention. At this point, the medical staff thinks this is the best thing for his recovery. Over the past two days he has lost the temperature, which is a huge positive at this point. They've also been talking about placing some kind of tube in his back to clean out the infection and then stitching his incision back up...but neurosurgery is going to wait a few more days before they do anything. So we're pretty much in a stage right now of letting him rest and hoping that this will further improve Dad's condition. I'll keep you posted.