Ventilator is Out.

Good news at last. I called the hospital this morning to see how Carl had slept and his nurse told me the Dr.'s were doing rounds and she would call me back. When she called and said they had decided it was time to take out the ventilator I was very excited. I quickly headed up to the hospital where they explained this would be a trial extubation and at the first sign of trouble he would be intubated again. At 11:20 this morning they removed the ventilator. Everyone stood around watching him. The doctor was waiting to make sure he would not be in any distress. If his stats dropped he would be back on the ventilator. They checked him at 30 min, 1 hour and 2 hours later and he was still in the 90's.

I was some what delighted, to put it midly! 
The bronchospastic cough has gone too!! What a relief for him. ♥

Spent the rest of the day trying to get through to him. It will take several days for the sedation to wear off. He managed to croak out my name with a very raspy voice so I knew that he was aware some of the time. He tends to fade in and out which is perfectly normal considering the amount of medication he has been on for the last 2 weeks. We still have to get the feeding tube out as soon as they are sure he has his swallow reflex and he has to get his strength back.

This is the first positive in over two weeks. His respiroligist should be in to see him tomorrow and I know he will be as happy as we are. Dr M will notify Toronto and we will be back on the "Active" list.

I came home made some phone calls, ate a hot supper and fell asleep in the chair for 2 hours.