For as slowly as he progressed for the first three days, things have progressed quickly the past few days. His blood pressure and heart numbers have looked great since Sunday, and he has maintained those levels.
On Sunday, they backed off the sedation and Pat woke up. He spelled out "ok?" with his finger on my hand, he smiled when I told him the Reds won the night before, and he asked me to find football on television. After his breathing tube came out, his voice was very weak, due to the tube irritating the vocal cords, but he still managed to say bad words when one of the doctors told him about RG3's injury.
On Monday and Tuesday, the chest tubes were pulled, the Swan-Ganz catheter was removed, and he sat in a chair for a couple of hours each day. As more lines and tubes were removed, the more Pat could move around,and he started sleeping a little better. The plan for today is to move him to a "step down" unit, where he will start with more physical therapy (being in bed for essentially a week has caused him to lose some strength) and we will both be trained on his LVAD and the daily tasks associated with it.
One of the side effects of the three days of sedation and pain meds is that Pat has been a little confused at times. Most of the time, he's perfectly lucid. He knows who he is, where he is, and why he is here. On Monday, he asked for his phone to check his fantasy teams, and he told someone that our anniversary was in three days- so he knew when our anniversary is and what day it was that day.
Pat has crazy dreams, though, and when he first wakes up he has difficulty telling what's what. Here are some of the gems:
"All of the babies I know were doing yoga." (As he was naming which babies were there, he fell asleep.)
"Brother David, Fr. Dan, Fr. Neil, and Fr. Chet were here last night. They came by helicopter while we were in the basement, because it was raining inside. And the band went wild." (In case you're wondering the band was not Journey.)
"Let me tell you: it rains A LOT here. Inside."
"Ainsleigh (his goddaughter) came for a photo op, but then she chickened out."
"There's a football field over there (pointing to the next space over.) That's a weird place for it." When I told him there was no field there; maybe he was thinking of the field downtown, where the Browns play, he said, "No, not that one. I think it's probably their practice field, though." (Inside. In the Clinic.)
"I was supposed to have an auto shop."
There were a few others I wrote down. And there may be a video. And a long exchange over the imaginary blue post card that he thinks I'm hiding from him. It has been welcome comic relief, for me, and his clarity is getting better each day.
We have received some cards and packages while we were here- until we have a chance to thank you individually, many thanks. We appreciate the thoughts and prayers, as Pat continues to recover and get stronger.
No comments:
Post a Comment