Good News

Most of the day, Phil and I were taking care of some work related issues for Richard. Its the first time weve been away for most of the day. So what does Richard do? He opens his eyes and holds Moms hand. We rushed to the hospital to find the following. They removed his BOLT (yeah!), took out his left chest tube, and they had him in an upright sitting position (he has been lying flat). It was nice to see him upright. He is in no way awake at this point. They weaned him off of every drug this AM to see what would happen. Mom was provoking him and he opened his eyes wide only to find out later he was just relieving himself (HEHEHE!). But then he would respond to Mom calling his name and he squeezed her hand. Phil and I arrived and began to provoke him also. I called him names and pinched him. He squeezed my hand atleast 20 times. Its a faint squeeze but we'll take it. He then moved his left arm and leg which has been a big question for us as far as being paralyzed. Its the first purposeful movement of that side since the accident. He seemed to get tired out of us screwing with him so we let him sleep. We returned about an hour later to find him in durress. His monitors were alarming and he was moving around in the bed. He is fighting the vent. He start having spontaneous respirations (YEAH) and now does not like the vent. Therefore they gave him a tiny bit of meds to sleep the night and in the morning they will put in the trach. FYI: the tube down his throat stimulates the gag reflex but since he has been in a coma, it was okay. Now that he is waking up, it gags him. The trach doesnt stimulate the gag reflex so it wont bother him. :) Looking forward to tomorrow!!