Good evening to all, and a wonderful evening it is.
Blessings upon blessings the last two days.
Yesterday, Aaron's nurses put him on the "trust thing", since he was awake enough to be reasonably alert after they had again scaled down his medications. The trust thing was "if he promised not to pull any of the tubes out, he could have his freedom and they would take his restraints off." He has been a really "good" patient for them. So, all day yesterday and last night, he was able to be in bed without any restraints.
He was still very unhappy, since he still could not have any water. He has had a one track mind for several days now, with every communication tracking on "water", and not liking the answer "no".
He wrote messages to his nurse, asking for "a large cup of ice water or lemonade PLEASE", I felt so bad for him, but kept telling him only a day or so now......
Well, this morning, at about 8:50 according to his nurse, he blew the trust thing. Oh, he didn't try to pull any of his tubes, but he did decide he was going to use the facilities.
So, while his nurse was tied up in another room on an emergency, he climbed out of bed. Now folks, the rails were up, so he had to climb over them to get out. By the Grace of God, someone walked by his room at that point and saw him. Standing by his bed, without his helmet, "dragging his ventilator and tubes behind him", heading towards the toilet. His nurse was not amused. When I came in at 9:00, I saw he was back in the restraints, although loosely. His nurse explained what had happened 10 minutes earlier, and commented "well, we know he can walk".
Later this morning, they took out the ventilator tubes, and he was totally on his own for breathing. And, he still wanted water, but could not have it until "cleared" by the doctors. We were told that would probably be tomorrow. At 4:00, he was doing even better, and was being given ice chips. His new favorite vocabulary words were "ice chips please". He was looking even better than this morning, and apparently he and Monica had reached a new agreement, since the restraints were off again.
He was trying to talk to us, but with the vent just being out today and still coughing, it was hard to understand. Plus, he can't talk very loud. But, the words "ice chips please" get very easy to make out after the first few times...
We were told that he had a stroll around the halls of the unit today, with his entourage from physical therapy there to make sure he didn't fall and to drag his IV pole around with him. Since it was the first time he had been up "officially", they had him use a walker, but they don't think that's going to be needed too much longer either.
When we went in at 8:00 pm, he was laying in the bed with a smile like the cat that got the canary, with one hand behind his head and the other holding a cup of water with a straw in it. He had been cleared for sips of water, "as tolerated". His feeding and gastric tubes had been removed, and for the first time in 20 days, we could see his whole face, and it looked GOOD. At about 8:30, his night nurse brought in apple juice, with the words that the doctor had cleared him to "progress as tolerated". They're going to let him have juices and such tonight, a liquid breakfast and if he tolerates that well, he'll get to eat real food tomorrow.
All in all, it has been a VERY good week. The staff is calling him their miracle patient, and are totally amazed at his progress.
Everyone agrees, including the medical staff, that we have had miracles here. We cannot thank you enough for your prayers, they are truly being heard and Aaron is on track to come back to us healthy and whole, on a pace that has everyone amazed.
Thank you again so much, and God BLESS every one of you.
Love, Deb
-- Deb (to reply remove what is obvious in the address)
WIP: I have no idea right now