Christmas Eve

Hi everyone,

It's Christmas Eve, and I seem to be getting another lesson in patience. They've completely weened Eric off of the strongest sedative, and had been making progress with the second sedative/pain killer. However, Eric started getting more agitated and trying to push out the ventilator tube with his tongue, so they went back to the full dose of the second sedative. He's resting much more comfortably now. I'm just anxious to have him awake. They say that this is how all patients are with the process of getting off of the ventilator. They have to find the happy sedative level where he is as calm and comfortable as can be and still awake enough to respond to them. I think each morning the doctors will come by to "test" him. They'll have him open his eyes, squeeze their hands on command, wiggle his toes and be able to cough. If he passes all of these tests, they'll take the tube out. Apparently this morning he only passed about half of those, so maybe tomorrow!

In the mean time, his fever has crept up to 103.6 deg F. They've added an anti-fungal to the rest of the medicine that they are giving him. The doctors all say that this is pretty standard. We've completely obliterated his immune system, so all of the natural bacteria (and I guess fungus) that are in everybody start causing problems. They've added 4 IV lines to him so that they could take the PICC line out of his arm, which they think was causing most of the problems. They will add a more central line in his neck either tomorrow or the next day. They wanted to give his body a chance to fight the infection before adding another semi-permanent line. Once they add the central line, they'll remove all of the IVs again. So between the extra meds and the PICC line, hopefully his fever will start going down soon.

I got to the hospital this morning to find a slew of new cards. Thank you all so very much!! We have a whole stack of cards to show Eric when he wakes up. Once we get to the oncology ward, we're planning on taping them to the walls to make the room a little more warm and inviting.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas tomorrow! Enjoy being around friends and family, eating lots of good food and drinks, and giving gifts. (Adam Keyster, I KNOW your family will be having wonderful Brandy Alexanders -- drink one for me!) We don't have a fireplace in our hospital room, but I have a feeling Santa won't skip over us. Eric's whole family is already here, and my family is heading down in the morning. So we'll have a nice little celebration!

Love,
Melissa

PS I just went back and re-read all of the previous posts. I swear I read everything at least 3 times before posting, but I still found all sorts of spelling/grammar errors. Sorry! I think I'll just chalk it up to being sleep deprived. : ) At least, that sounds like a good excuse to me!