Shhhhh.... What is that noise?

Could it be? Is that the sound of silence? It sure as heck is. Ken's room is quiet because he is off the oscillator. I AM SO EXCITED. Ken's nurse last night was able to lower his oxygen intake from 65% to 50% on the oscillator. So the lung doc decided to try to wean him off to the regular respirator. They changed him over this morning to a regular respirator. They watched him for about 5 hours and checked his blood gases. That tells them how his oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are in his blood. Since his were fine, they went ahead and stopped his paralytic drug this afternoon. He has been coughing when they turn him. What a wonderful thing. Ken can cough. I know he still has a long ways to go and I am not being unrealistic, but THANK GOD, he is moving in the right direction. I am over the moon with happiness at the moment. It will take 12-24 hours for the paralytic to completely get out of his system and then we will see how he tolerates breathing with the respirator. But the doc ordered it at 80% oxygen and 15 peep to start. He is actually now at 50% oxygen on the machine and 7.5 peep. That is so great. Means he is doing better than expected. (Peep is the pressure used to push the breaths into his lungs.)

Thank you to all the people praying, from the 2 year old Ava to the 87 year old Grandpa Steve. Thank you so much. It is so great to hear of all the children that are praying for Ken. He would be so happy to know that. So here are just a few kids names that are saying prayers for you Ken....
Lauren, Spencer, Joe, Gunnar, Dillon, Xander, Ava, Kaley, Madison, Joe and his football team buddies, Lauren and her church school class. Not to mention all of the "Kids" at CSU that work for you. Thank you all for your prayers and keep it up. Ken is feeling God's grace and healing powers.

I wanted to mention something else so that I won't forget to tell Ken when he is really awake. When Ken was first put on the oscillator, Nov. 30th, they wanted to move him to the actual ICU unit instead of the Bone Marrow ICU. I am thankful that they were able to work it out and keep him here. Much safer and nicer for me. But Ken will be happy to know that while he was here, the hospital was able to train most of their bone marrow transplant nurses on how to manage an oscillator. Almost every day shift, Ken had 2 nurses assigned that stayed in the room with him. One was training on the oscillator. Since Ken loves the college environment, he will like that they used him for such a positive aspect. Good to have them trained in case it happens to anyone else.

Also, Amy from AMR Combs. Thank you for the nice card and words of encouragement. Yes, I do remember you. I am so happy to hear that many of my Combs friends are reading the blog and pulling for Ken and me. Bless all of you and hope we can get together sometime soon. Thank you for you thoughts and prayers.

I still can't get over how quiet it is in this room. I can actually hear the TV from clear across the room. Ken looks good to, considering. He is starting to get some hair growth back on his eyebrows and chin. He is so thin that his cheek bones are sticking out and his legs are very thin, but his color looks good and he is taking baby steps to get back to us.

Dr. Matous said today that sometimes, bone marrow patients that have an injury as serious as Ken's, have trouble with the transplant. Especially when the injury happens so early like Ken. His showed up on day +10. Doc said sometimes the bone marrow freaks out and decides not to en graft. But not Ken. His white counts are really up, his platelets are great. Doc also pointed out that Ken is staying strong. He is showing us that he is fighting by the other organs in his body. His liver is fine, his heart is still strong, his kidneys are amazing. Doc thinks Ken is making it clear that he is determined to come back to us. He said to expect 2010 to be all about rehab for Ken because he believes that he will come through this. Sounds great doesn't it? Sounds so much better than what the docs were telling me last weekend.

We have a conference call Monday morning with Dr. Matous, the oncology doc that is managing Ken's transplant; Luis who is the hospital psychologist; me and all 5 of our kids. It is supposed to be so that we can all be brought up to speed about what is happening with Ken. Mainly so the kids can get their questions answered. If any of you have questions you want me to ask, or things that I haven't covered in the blog, let me know and I will see about getting them answered. And I will let you know if we learn anything new about Ken's progress. Tonight will be an important night, hope it all goes well. Baby steps forward. Then maybe soon, Ken will be running around in squeaky sneakers like Norah. I will take the baby steps for now. Have a restful night. Bev