Sunday, November 22

Billy had an uneventful night, which you will recall means a good night. He will be on the ventilator for now and quite possibly forever. I'm not going to pay much attention to it or write about it much anymore. The ventilator is his reality and is keeping him alive. At some point down the road they will give him a tracheostomy which means instead of having the vent tube going through his mouth to his lungs it will go through an incision through his throat. This type of ventilator is ultimately more comfortable for patients, won't cause tissue breakdown in his lips (a very real risk he has with tubes laying in his mouth), and allows for more flexibility which makes weaning patients a lot easier. We hope that will be the outcome in Bill's case, but we don't know yet. His doctor seemed pleased and encouraged by his status this morning.  They are going to take him off the dopamine drip (the IV I mentioned last night) because his heart is doing much better. Yay!

He will get another bronchiostomy later today. This is the procedure where they drop a camera down his throat and look at his airway.  Probably the main reason they are doing is that they can remove some of the mucus that's lower in his lungs. He had a much, much easier time breathing a couple days ago after this procedure.

He has developed pneumonia which is not surprising. His doctor told us the other day that it was more a question of when rather than if he would have pneumonia. So, another round of antibiotics and some Tylenol to bring down the fever.

All in all, today is shaping up to be good.