Holding Steady Kindof

I'm at the hospital but haven't seen Dad yet today.  Dad has been sedated since my last post.  He is breathing ok and resting, but he's sedated and still getting help from the ventilator, so who knows if his condition has really improved or worsened.  The staff did some tests... they did an xray on his head and back.  My understanding is the head xray didn't show anything bad.  The back xray is going to be evaluated by a specialist.  They feel it's likely that his back pain is due to a compressed disk.  They are thinking about treating it with an experimental technique, but if they can't do that, they're not sure what they can do.  Another thing worth mentioning is that Dad's heart rate has gone down into the 40's since last night.  I don't think they've offered an explanation of the cause or the consequences.  Like many things that have happened to Dad in the ICU this time and several years ago, it seems like we're left to come up with our own theories.