Friday Update (6/17/06)
**written by Cari**
Today was a good, but rough day - if that makes any sense? No setbacks today. It was two weeks ago around this very time Josh had his accident. It is hard to believe how far we have come and how far we have to go since then, but with God's grace and the strength of so many friends and family behind us - we will make it!
Josh is continuing to follow commands such as blinking and holding up his fingers, but I feel that he is in sensory overload now that he is "awake" and can sense everything going on around him. I think it sends him into a bit of a panic and therefore he becomes very agitated, very quickly. This is very common with patients who have sustained head injuries. I believe he realizes that he has a tube in his mouth and he can't communicate like he wants to, so he begins to fight in the only way he can right now and that is with his arms (he pulls very hard against the wrist restraints) and the harder he fights, the heavier and heavier his breathing gets. For this reason, they have to give him medicine (they turned off his continuous sedation drip today and are only giving it to him as needed) to help calm him down. Hopefully, as the swelling in his head continues to go down these symptoms will lessen. I pray that it doesn't l ast very long because it is very difficult to see my little brother suffer. Mom and I tried not to stimulate him much today so as not to further aggravate him even more. Therefore, we are really limiting the amount of visitors he has for the moment while he is so easily agitated.
Good news is that they took both of his chest tubes out today. I know that it has to be much more comfortable for him. They were also able to decrease the settings on the ventilator just a little bit today and he seemed to tolerate it okay. His is coughing alot and I think that sometimes makes him lose his breath, but he is doing okay in the respiratory department. When we left this evening Josh had just gotten cleaned up and was resting very peacefully.
We are just in the wait and see mode right now. My dad will be traveling up early in the morning to visit with us all for the weekend. I hope that you all have a wonderful Father's Day weekend. I will write again tomorrow. Keep praying for a complete recovery. Again, thank you all for the encouraging emails and cards. We truly appreciate it.
Today was a good, but rough day - if that makes any sense? No setbacks today. It was two weeks ago around this very time Josh had his accident. It is hard to believe how far we have come and how far we have to go since then, but with God's grace and the strength of so many friends and family behind us - we will make it!
Josh is continuing to follow commands such as blinking and holding up his fingers, but I feel that he is in sensory overload now that he is "awake" and can sense everything going on around him. I think it sends him into a bit of a panic and therefore he becomes very agitated, very quickly. This is very common with patients who have sustained head injuries. I believe he realizes that he has a tube in his mouth and he can't communicate like he wants to, so he begins to fight in the only way he can right now and that is with his arms (he pulls very hard against the wrist restraints) and the harder he fights, the heavier and heavier his breathing gets. For this reason, they have to give him medicine (they turned off his continuous sedation drip today and are only giving it to him as needed) to help calm him down. Hopefully, as the swelling in his head continues to go down these symptoms will lessen. I pray that it doesn't l ast very long because it is very difficult to see my little brother suffer. Mom and I tried not to stimulate him much today so as not to further aggravate him even more. Therefore, we are really limiting the amount of visitors he has for the moment while he is so easily agitated.
Good news is that they took both of his chest tubes out today. I know that it has to be much more comfortable for him. They were also able to decrease the settings on the ventilator just a little bit today and he seemed to tolerate it okay. His is coughing alot and I think that sometimes makes him lose his breath, but he is doing okay in the respiratory department. When we left this evening Josh had just gotten cleaned up and was resting very peacefully.
We are just in the wait and see mode right now. My dad will be traveling up early in the morning to visit with us all for the weekend. I hope that you all have a wonderful Father's Day weekend. I will write again tomorrow. Keep praying for a complete recovery. Again, thank you all for the encouraging emails and cards. We truly appreciate it.
posted by Brandon at
6:10 AM
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