Busy Friday

Hi everyone,
Eric had a busy Friday. He is very aware and mouthing full conversations with us. It's great that he can tell us what he wants and where he hurts. He can't actually talk yet, but the doctors assure us it will come.

In the morning, Eric had an EEG test (electroencephalogram). This test measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Eric had a seizer on Thursday and the doctors where trying to determine if was any brain damage. There is a strong hunch that the seizer might be due to withdrawl from the strong drugs he's been on. We should get the test results today.

Eric had his first physical therapy session yesterday. The Physical Therapist showed us what exercises Eric should do. Eric was already asking for his arms and legs to be moved around, so he was definitely ready for this. The Physical Therapist did a few different movements with him, and was very pleased with his quad response (large leg muscles), arm movement, and head movement. They actually sat Eric up for 5 mins. They had him sit on the side of the bed, and usually a patient's feet won't touch the ground. But of course, our guy is tall, so they sat him up and his feet were fully planted on the floor. :) Sitting made him dizzy, but it sure was good to see him up right.

Immediately afterwards, the nurses packed Eric up and moved him to the less intensive care unit. He is now in the Medical Progressive Care Unit (MPCU). It's on the same floor, but a different wing. This was the unit Eric started in when he had to be intubated. All of this was a lot of activity for Eric. It really tired him out.

Shortly after the move, Eric started to have irregular heart beats. It's called atrial fibrillation, aFib for short. Eric had this once before at the very end of Dec. In atrial fibrillation, the regular electrical wave in the heart does not occur in the upper chambers of the heart. They are treating it with a drug that keeps his heart rate low. They believe his heart will revert back to normal rhythm soon. The doctors shocked him in Dec to convert him back to a normal rhythm, but they don't plan on doing the shock this time.

Eric's blood pressure was also very high right after the move (~200/140). They gave him blood pressure medicine, and in an hour his blood pressure was under control. In this new room, the monitor that displays all of his vital signs is right next to his head. It dings right in his good ear when something goes out of the control limits. It was really starting to annoy him because he was trying to sleep. At one point he was giving the monitor the evil eye. I told him that his blood pressure was too high, and that's why it was going off. So amazingly, the next blood pressure reading was 118/66. Pure coincidence, I'm sure, but it was still funny that it appeared he willed his blood pressure into normal range. :)

Eric has been able to sleep in 2 hour intervals during the night. Unfortunately they have to give breathing treatments and take blood sugars during the night that wake him up.

Overall, Eric continues to heal and build his strength. He is doing great!

Love,
Sara