Today was similar to yesterday. Dad is still in a lot of pain so he is sedated. When we visited him in the morning he was sleeping and this afternoon he was sleeping as well. During our morning visit Dad asked me when he would be able to get on a plane. These questions are difficult to answer as we do not want to discourage him. I told him that he would be able to leave the hospital and get on a plane as soon as he was able to breath on his own without assistants from the ventilator. I told him he needs to rest and allow his body to heal and that his body would tell the doctors when he is ready to go home. But that everyone including doctors are impressed with his recovery thus far. He winked at me which means he understood and was ok with what I was telling him.
When we came back for our last visit of the day at night he was more aware but still sedated. His blood pressure was a little high which is a sign of some discomfort. As soon as mom and I walked in he asked for his legs, feet and hands to be rubbed. Visiting hours are over at 8pm. So when it was time for us to leave we told him we would be back tomorrow and he didn’t want us to leave. He asked us if we could stay a little longer so we did. Then he told me to tell the nurse that he could breath on his own. He remembered what I had said earlier in the day about being able to leave the hospital. Then he tried to take a deep breath and starting coughing except when he coughs the air has no where to go and is extremely painful. You can image not only did it hurt him physically but hurt us emotionally to see Dad struggle this way. The encouraging news to all this is that his body continues to heal and this is apparent in his desire to leave the hospital and come home.