Weekend Update

I so should have blogged earlier. Sorry, I have been on the phone all night sharing the good news. Up until this afternoon, there wasn't much change in Ken. But he is improving. We started with baby steps, but we may be taking big steps tomorrow.

The nurses turned off Ken's respirator for 2 hours this afternoon and Ken did great breathing on his own. Yeah. His vitals were stable and he tolerated it just fine. Then after that, they turned his sedation down, so he opened his eyes every time I called his name. I talked to him about every half hour. I just told him he was doing fine, that I loved him and that he could go back to sleep. He would then shut his eyes and sleep some more. At one point, I was skyping with Katy and Norah and Katy was talking to Ken. Then he opened his eyes and was about to start crying. I know he misses us too. But we quickly got him settled and back to sleep. That was this afternoon. I just called the hospital at 11 and the nurse said he nodded no when she asked him if he was in any pain. Yeah.

So the plan for tomorrow, is to turn down his sedation again early in the morning so he is more awake. Then they are going to turn off the respirator again for 2 hours at 8:00. If he tolerates that, they will wake him up more and put him thru some commands. If he does the commands they ask, they will take out the respirator. At least that is what the weekend doctor wants to do. I plan to be there early to talk to his lung doctors and his oncologist. I want to make sure they all are on board. But even if it isn't tomorrow, it will be soon.

So what are we still looking at? He is still running a fever off and on. So he will be on antibiotics for a while. His voice will probably be affected again. It is usually a problem for most respirator patients. The toughest thing for Ken will be his muscle function. We are looking at physical therapy. The high dose of steroids they gave him would have affected his muscles, so we will have to do some therapy. But he can do it. Poor guy. Just laying there while all this is going on. He is amazing. I just can't wait to talk to him again. Or listen to him, or see his eyes smile at me. I hope tomorrow goes well.

The weekend was ok. Friday was really long and horrible. But Saturday, my friends, Terry and Alan came and took me to lunch. Then Tessa, our youngest, showed up and spent the weekend with me. We had a great time, visiting with Dad and then Christmas shopping till late Sat night. We had some great girl talk, just what I needed since I miss talking to Ken so much.

Sunday, I visited my cousin, Gary and his family as they were leaving Children's hospital. Gary's new grand baby, Nicholas, had been there for a few days. He is safely home in Laramie this evening. Cute baby, 5 lbs. Hope he continues to get better.

I am definitely over my cold. I feel great. Amazing. That was a really fast cold. I know it was all your prayers. I'm just thankful that I am better before Ken wakes up tomorrow and needs me.

I better get to bed so that we can be ready for tomorrow. Thank you all for your support. This is going to be a great week. Ken just has to keep getting better. We still don't know what the infection was in his lungs. They think it was from the chemo drugs, but we may never know for sure.

Have a great week. Buyback is in full swing at the Bookstore and I miss being there. This is the weirdest December. Say hi to everyone there for me.

Till tomorrow....Bev