Although it was fairly uneventful, I feel like the remainder of the day went much better.
First, at my 5:00 visit I saw that Evil Nurse had left the building. YAY. And in her place was a really nice and very competent nurse named Chris. Chris had already turned my dad's Propofol down to a lower dose, which I was happy about. Earlier in the day I had verbalized to Evil Nurse that I thought he might be on too much sedation due to the new onset of pinpoint pupils. Plus, he really does quite well at a lower dose of Propofol, he stays sedated enough to be comfortable but isn't snowed. My theory on sedation is the least amount to achieve the desired effect is ideal. So I was planning to see how he was doing at the next visit before I advocated for tapering that down. But Chris came on shift and did that right away anyway so that made things easy.
The fever finally came down to 100 (from 103) so Chris did away with the cooling blankets and ice and my dad no longer seems agitated.
No new lab results or test results came back since my last update.
Another good sign happened at the end of the night, soon before I was getting ready to leave at 10:00. He started to move his arm and legs and wrinkle his brow, so I started talking to him more and he really seemed to respond to my voice. I asked him to squeeze my hand and he gave me two squeezes, although not quite as firm as the night before. But then I asked him if he could open his eyes and he immediately fluttered his eyes. He did that on command three times, the last time his eyes were about 1/3 way open. I have no doubt that he knows I'm here and I am so thankful and glad for that. I hope that gives him comfort and healing strength.
Overall I had a big improvement in mood after having some really good and motivating conversations with friends and family and receiving so many wonderful texts, phone calls, and emails. I feel so unbelievably lucky to have so many amazing people who care. I made myself go to Applebee's and finally eat a little something. Then I went to my last visit with him for the day feeling very positive, uplifted, and energized. I gave him a bunch of pep talks tonight and I may have sung "Eye of the Tiger" in his ear. Nothing says "All right let's kick this infection's ass" like a little 'Eye of the Tiger' dagnabbit.
There are two things that I want to talk to the doctor about tomorrow though. I noticed tonight that he's getting a little scleral edema (swelling on the outside corner of both eyes). I'm thinking it's probably just a result of him being sedated on the ventilator though. Maybe some increased pressure, not being able to close his eyes completely, and maybe not getting good enough eye care. So I want to address what we can do about that. I also noticed he had a couple higher blood pressures tonight so I want to watch that trend. Overall his systolic BP has been 110s/120s but this evening it was 130s/140s for a couple hours. I'll see tomorrow morning if those were isolated or if he's starting to trend high, which we may need to address.
I'm hoping for a good day tomorrow, again I'm anxious to hear how he does when they do the "Sedation Vacation" in the morning. I'm extra excited and anxious too because one of my best friends, Sunita, is flying in late tomorrow night. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. AND I just found out that Kristen and Dawn bought Marty an airline ticket so that he could come be with me Friday night through Sunday evening. Do I have the best friends or what?
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