Recovery

All the days seem to be running together. This morning started off with a call to the ICU to make sure that they knew he was on a certain heart med. per request of mom who makes a lot of duplicate request...grrr but I called and spoke with a nurse who said that he was very alert today. So after a morning jog and breakfast we made it for visiting hours that start at 11:00am. We usually show up early to sneak an extra hour or two but they kindly asked us not to do that anymore and I kindly responded and told them to pound sand. When we were there he was more alert than he has been. Dad and I were able to communicate via eye winks and eye movements. As you can imagine it is very diffucult to establish since we have never been in this situation before. After many many failed attempts I finally realized he wanted me to rub his legs and feet. This provided him with much relief. So I massaged his legs, feet and then arms and hands. Unfortunately he is experiencing great pain in his chest which has nothing to do with his heart but his lungs. He is getting stomach spams due to the recuperation of his muscles but this is causing a great deal of pain. Enough to bring him to tears. Its hard to watch. After our time in the morning was up we went to visit Dr. Stern who told us that the tracheotomy went well but there were issues with the protein they are feeding him. Since his muscles are paralyzed he is unable to swallow and this has caused a "back up" of protein into his esophagus. They are planning on putting a feeding tube directly into his stomach which they call a peg and they will remove the built up portion of protein in the esophagus. We visited him several more times today and repeated the process of rubbing his legs, feet, arms, and hands. We are getting better with our communication. Again the process and improvement has been extremely slow but he is moving his thumb and hand slightly. As well as both feet..slightly but enough to show improvement. I was able to read the bible to him today which he seemed to enjoy but I think he is definately favoring the foot rubs for now. I love that man. I feel lucky to be here with him and blessed that he is my dad.