Monday, December 21

Today was our grandfather's memorial service so I have been away from the hospital most of the last couple of days.  A family friend filmed the service for Bill and we are waiting to scatter Granddad's ashes until he can join us. 

The trach collar breathing trials have been continuing and Bill is doing very well.  He still has some anxiety but I think it is getting a lot easier for him and he is very much focused on getting off the ventilator!  I don't know what sort of timeline there might be for this and I suspect that with him it would be subject to change.  For now he will continue to increase his time off the ventilator and on the trach collar.  At some point they may downsize the plastic hardware in his trachea and then it could be removed altogether.  After that happens, he would likely receive supplemental oxygen via a nasal canula (you see people around town with portable oxygen tanks and nasal canula all the time) and then if all goes well he would be fine with atmospheric oxygen like the rest of us.  This is a very rough description of the process and it all depends on how things go with him and what he can tolerate.  Some steps may be skipped or he may not make it all the way to breathing atmospheric oxygen on his own.  Regardless of the rest, getting off the ventilator is the first and hardest step.