Dad’s been off the ventilator for 32 hours and all is well. His lungs are coping, his heart rate hovers around 93 (which is normal for him), his blood pressure is perfect (much better than mine), and his oxygen saturation is nearly 100%. These are all great signs that he is returning to normal.
One of the male nurses in the ICU (Desmond) brought in his hair clippers the other day and gave Dad a really nice haircut, so he looks more like himself. He actually looks great! For the past few days I’ve been focusing on his exercise. It’s really been a challenge since he doesn’t have much movement, so I’ve been trying to do resistance training with him. I’ll work his biceps, triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings and it’s been working. I can see his muscles tightening and twitching as I lower them or raise them and I can feel his resistance as he fights against the movement. I’ve noticed that his triceps (the back part of the upper arm) seem to be the strongest, so today I tried something new. I took his right arm (by far the strongest part of his body) and I raised it so that his elbow went past his head. Then as I held his arm in an 'L' position I asked him to try and lift his hand up over his elbow. He struggled a little and then he lifted it without my help! I shouted in approval, of course, and Dad smiled the biggest and happiest smile I’ve seen since I’ve been here. I asked him if he wanted to try again and he said yes, so we did it again and he did it even better this time, it was more controlled. It was great to see him move a body part on his own, but it was even better to see the look of accomplishment and satisfaction on his face. When the nurse came in the room we showed her what he could do and she smiled and praised him, it was a really great moment. When our visit came to an end, as usual, Mom explained to him that we needed to leave but this time before I could begin praying he quickly said, “I’ll pray!” and before we could respond, he closed is eyes and started to mouth a prayer. Mom and I looked at each other, surprisingly, and then quickly turned our faces back towards him so that we could watch his lips and come into agreement with each word we could make out. He praised God and thanked Him for healing. He prayed for Brenda and each of my kids, for Gina, Rodney and each of his kids, he prayed for John and he prayed for Mom and me.
Today was an experience I will never forget!
