Update

This is Robin. Sorry to all that there's been few updates on Dad's status. John had to return to Colorado last weekend and so our "official poster" of information has been away from the hospital. So, while I am definitely a far second to John in this area, I'll do what I can.

The last week has been a challenging one. Dad developed a bacterial infection in his stomach, probably from all the meds he is receiving here. He has not been digesting his nutrition properly so they have had to put a tube in his mouth to his stomach to get off that which is not being taken in by his body. His blood pressure has been very high, then very low at times, although he is being given meds to try and stabilize. They did a catscan on his stomach over the weekend to try and rule out any other problems with his stomach. The surgeon indicated yesterday that he didn't see any tears or obstructions.

While he slept great portions of last week, Friday evening he woke up some and has been more awake over the weekend. He has been somewhat responsive to questions from my mom and to me at times. Overall, he is very tired of being here. Yesterday afternoon, he pulled out his feeding tube, stomach tube, his heart monitor and removed his blood pressure cuff in a matter of minutes when no one was in the room. He remains very strong in his arms and hands.

He is fluctuating between being on the ventilator full support and assisted support. Although most of the weekend he's been on full. When asked about pain, he tells the nurses he doesn't have any. But I think he still has pain in his back, based upon his facial expressions when the nurses are out of the room.

Thank you to all friends and family who have called, stopped by, sent emails, texts and letters. Without your love and support, this would be a much more difficult thing that it already is. We continue to take it day by day and see what the next one holds.

Love, Robin