Trach Collar

Hi,

Eric made some more improvements with his ventilator today. About midday, he was moved to a trach collar, which basically meant he was breathing completely on his own. All it supplied was a little more oxygen than normal air. He was on and off of this twice today in 2 hour durations. Now, he's back on volume control mode on the ventilator to give him a break. He's completely off of both sedative drips, with only small doses of ativan (one of the sedatives, anti-anxiety) as needed tonight. The idea is to get him even more awake tomorrow.

He was communicating with us even more today. It gets a little hard, because he can't talk with the trach tube. Plus, he hasn't moved or talked in 6 weeks, so even when he mouths words, we have a hard time knowing what he is trying to say. I'm sure this is very frustrating for him. I just wish I could do more to make him comfortable. He's also starting to try to move around a little in the bed. He is so weak, and I'm sure he hurts pretty much everywhere. I wish I could make it easier on him. We're all so happy to see him like this, and he probably doesn't understand why; at least, I hope he doesn't understand. I'm starting to sleep at the hospital again, because I don't want him to wake up and not recognize anyone.

He had a fever yesterday, peaking at 101.5 F, but now that is almost completely gone. It will be so nice to start taking lines away from him, since those are the most likely sources of infection.

I wanted to thank everyone again for all of the cards, comments, emails, and packages. We're going to have a fun time showing them all to Eric once he is more awake. I think we've gotten over 100 cards since we've been here. They've been absolutely wonderful to receive and read. It is truly amazing the amount of support we have, and it means so much to all of us here.

Love,
Melissa