Sunday update from Mom

This has definitely been a good day for Richard! I went in about eleven to see him, and he was wide awake and he spoke to me. It took a few seconds for me to realize he didn't have his breathing tube in! He could talk! His nurse said that he had helped matters along himself--I said, "Did he pull it out?" and she said, "He says he coughed it out!" Whatever way it was removed, it's out and he was breathing this morning with a very uncomfortable oxygen mask, and later with just the little tubes going up his nose. Then she took his ng tube out for about an hour, just to give him a rest, and Dr. Shear asked that it go back into his nose rather than his mouth, so he would be more comfortable.

This afternoon he asked me if he could go for a walk, and I said he was still tethered to some of his tubes--his saline drip and his tpn feeding. I told his nurse he wanted to be up for a while, so she put him in a chair--with some help, I might add. She is Filipino, very tiny, and expecting a baby in July! After a little more than an hour he was threatening to put himself back to bed. His nurse was busy with her other patient and we almost had to hold him down--almost, but not quite. Finally she came back and put him down for a nap.

I told him I would be starting OLLI classes tomorrow and he said quite seriously, "I would like to go"--not wishfully, but like that was what he really intended to do. He is feeling much better, and I hope he doesn't have to stay in the hospital too much longer. He is so much stronger and better off than when he came out of ICU the last time that I am amazed. I do hope he can be out and about before he gets debilitated by spending too much time in bed!