Memorial Day Update

Sorry it's been a few days since the last update. Here goes...

Thursday evening David and I went up to see him and he was awake, but pretty frustrated. You can tell he's ready to be better and definitely ready to be off the ventilator.

Over this holiday weekend, we got to see him a few times. He seemed to be in better spirits - had his favorite channel on every time - The Golf Channel. He's absorbing the tips from the pros so he will be ready when he gets over all of this mess :)

Seriously - he is trying very hard to communicate and gets a little frustrated when we can't figure out what he's trying to tell us. Paul is the best at figuring it out. He's very emotional, which is very normal for stroke patients. He is so happy to see all his friends and family and he shows it. He'll laugh, he'll cry. He gives us the thumbs up and the sign for I Love You. He tried to write again, but it's hard since he can't see what he's writing and b/c he is not left handed.

He is moving his right leg a little each day. He can barely barely move his right fingers sometimes. All is good progress, just slow. But we'll take it!

Unfortunately the ventilator is a must for him for a while. The doctors said that until he can swallow and cough completely normal, they have to keep the ventilator in to keep his airway open. He really hates that - as you can imagine. But, as long as he has the paralysis on his right side he is unable to swallow correctly, so things (fluids/saliva/secretions) are going into his lungs instead of his stomach. We do not want that at all. He has gotten over the pneumonia and we want to keep it that way.

On a positive note - they have a longer term solution for the ventilator and have taken it out of his mouth and put it in through his trachea. Please forgive me, I am not 100% on what to call this procedure. But it's similar to what Christopher Reeve had to help him breath. Steve is breathing almost completely on his own, but again - he needs this to keep his airway clear.

What does this really mean for him? Well, it's really a great thing. With the ventilator in the new location he can become more mobile. He is not confined to the bed beside the machine anymore. Once he gets stronger he will be able to move to a new facility that specializes in rehabilitation/therapy of stroke patients with the trachea ventilator. We do not know how long until that happens, but if things go well, we're somewhat hopeful it could be within 1-2 weeks. At this point we are not sure which facility he will go to for this, but right now I think the options are 1 - a different unit where he is now at Erlanger, 2 - Kindrid Hospital, also in Chattanooga, or 3 - the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga.

On his visit tonight, mom said you could tell he was happy to have the ventilator out of his mouth. he was feeling his teeth and his mouth and even wanted kisses from Mom. So cute :)

News about the clots? Not yet. They did another MRI on him this weekend, but his regular Dr hadn't been in yet, so we have no real official word. The weekend Dr told mom basically what we all already know. Until the other Dr can review the MRI results, we won't know if the clots are any smaller or anything like that.

Thanks for bearing with me on these updates. And as usual Thank You for the Prayers!!!