Friday, April 29, 2011

strength slowly returning

I have not posted for a couple days because there has not been much change with my dad.  He was taken off of the breathing machine on Tuesday and has been breathing fine and has not been in any pain.  His meals have been slowly changing from clear fluids to this evening he had a sandwich.  Progress!!!

He has also been getting some strength back, although this is a very slow.  When I was there on Thursday he managed to pick up a glass and take a drink of water and put the glass back down without any assistance.  When he put it down he kind of smirked and said whew that was a pretty big job.  I laughed and said yes indeed it was.  Of course what you don't know is that there is a family joke about pretty big jobs and being pretty busy - and it would take too long to explain and wouldn't be nearly as funny so I won't bother you with it.  The point is that his sense of humor is there and we are seeing him come back.  At one point he was even humming along to a song on the radio. 

The downside is that many of his comments are kind of strange and he is often very confused. According to the nurses he is suffering from sleep deprivation and one nurse even called it ICU-itis.  At this point we are praying that they can find a good medication to help him get a few nights of good restful sleep and the confusion will go away. 

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