Monday 5/29 7pm - Some Complications

We were warned from the beginning that extended stays in Intensive/Critical care usually involve complications. For example, being intubated for many days puts the patient at risk of Pnumonia (not the case with Dad).

Today, Dad's numbers continued to be very good as Angela was pulling him out the coma. She's taking great care of him. As he was coming out of the medically-induced coma, he moved one leg and caughed (good signs). The trouble began shortly thereafter.

Fluid has begun to build in Dad's lungs and PulseOx (oxygen in his blood) began to drop. The fluid is building because he is unable to caugh it out. To get the pulseOx back up, Angela had to increase the pressure coming into his lungs from the ventilator. This, in turn, icreased his ICP. As of about 6:30pm, ICP was hovering just under 30, and CPP had fallen to 70 and then the high 60s. As long as CPP is above 60, his brain is getting enough blood to provide oxygen and glucose, but we were much happier when it was close to 100 earlier this evening.

Angela is gradually pulling Dad back into a coma to calm his brain, and to reduce it's metabolic needs.

Again - we expected complications. But, this is still a very scary time. We should hear an update in the next hour, and I'll post as soon as I can get back to a PC.