keeping everyone on their toes!

So Dave was suppose to move out of ICU last friday (1/29), he started running a fever again, so they decided to keep him in ICU over the weekend. Over the weekend he went off the vent from 11 am till 5 pm on friday and seem to do very well, the nurse and respiratory therapist claimed he looked the best that they had seen him. That night his left lung filled up again. His chest x-ray didn't look good saturday morning and he was still running a low fever. When chest x-ray doesn't look good that means a not so pleasent morning for Dave. The nurse and respiratory therapist wind up doing a lot of treatments and suctioning of the lungs on Dave. This is good for Dave because they can get a lot of secretions out of his lungs, but painful because it makes Dave cough which irriates his tracheotomy. Coughing is good because it helps strenghen Daves muscles, but bad because it creates more moisture around the site of the tracheotomy. The very moist enviroment of the tracheotomy slows down the healing of the skin around the trach, making the whole area sore. So Daves body is pretty much playing a game of catch 22 with itself. The fever held on through the weekend, and into monday. On Tuesday he fever disappeared, suprising the doctors. I think they were almost ready to start Dave back on antibotics. Now he is ready to move, that's what the doctors say. Dave has a different opinion.

Let me go back just a little bit. When I walked into Dave's room today I had a double take, Dave was sitting in a reclining chair!! And his lips were moving a mile a minute, unfortunally no sound was coming out (remember he does have a trach). It seems as good as Dave looked in the chair he had not been too happy about being moved into it. Amy claims she felt he had been trying to say quite a few f bombs. I feel bad because from the time I walked into his room it was obvious he was trying to tell me something. You can only gather so much information from yes or no questions. It has to be so frustrating for Dave not be able to communicate clearly. I would like to remind anyone who comes to visit Dave about this issue. Our usual "never at a lose for words" Dave can't express himself right now. But he hasn't given up trying, which can make it hard at times because he tries to talk and we try to guess what he is saying. By his expression most of the time I can only guess we are not guessing right. I was able to figure out though that Dave doesn't want to leave ICU. Over the last three months Dave has been in four hospitals and two rehabilitation facilities. Every time he gets comfortable with the staff around him it is time to move. He likes the people around him right now and he feels comfortable, I don't blame him! The nice thing about where he is going next is that the doctors will be the same. With that being said maybe the adjustment won't be so hard. He should be moving tomorrow, lets hope all goes well. Please keep sending all your positive energy, well wishes and prayers Dave's way