Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday Evening

Today was indeed a good day. When I left this evening he was completely off the dopamine and both the pain medicine and the sedative were greatly reduced. He was breathing comfortably and his eyelids were twitching as though he was dreaming. I hope his dreams are good.

He had the bronchiostomy tonight and his doctor said "he tolerated it well" and then she told us that he bit her during the procedure. I don't think she minded that at all to be honest with you. The really good news is that his pulse did not drop at all while they were doing the test. When he was bronched two days ago they had to stop and give him breaks because his pulse dropped to 60 beats/min (thats low for him right now) and then went down to 40 (frighteningly low) while they waited. Yikes! Tonight it did not go below 80. His body is better able to maintain his heart rate.  See, the small things feel like the biggest accomplishments! They were able to remove quite a bit of fluid from his lungs and his temperature came down during the day. It looks like the pneumonia is under control. I'm not sure how long it takes to clear up completely, but I suspect that because of his condition we will see more infections like this.

Our family from Massachusetts came in Friday and Saturday. It's been so great to have them here, and even better to share some of this. My cousin Bekah spent most of today with him and for that I am incredibly grateful.

5 comments:

  1. Please share with Bill and your family that "The Marietta HS Wall of Sound" alumni, especially the Trumpets, are watching your blog and praying for you all. (From Rick Pettebone, US Navy, HI)

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  2. Sarah,

    Me and my family are keeping Billy in our thoughts and prayers. I am sending positive energy to you and the rest of the family to help him through this.

    -Sarie Landers

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  3. Dear Beck family,

    My thoughts and prayers are with you all during this. Hope is a very powerful and positive thing, keep your spirits high to help each other through your difficult time.

    Laura (Brown) Ulmer

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  4. Hey Sarah.

    Keeping all of you in my thoughts. I've asked my fellow teachers to do the same. Lots of good thoughts your direction.

    Jenn

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  5. all of you are in our thoughts and prayers. thanks for keeping us posted. Billy is a strong young man and we hope for the best. stay strong.Joy Schumacher (Sarie's mom)

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