Friday: Daddy's pretty face

Boy, you take the esophageal respirator out of a guy and let him sit upright, and he looks GOOD!

FB: Fri, 9:32 am:
Dad update: surgery done. All levels are lower, but some of that's good (bp, for example). He's heavily sedated, probably not responsive for a bit. Now we wait.

FB: Fri, 12;20 pm:
Dad update: well that wait wasn't long. He started flinching 90 minutes after surgery. Surprising, but great. All is calm and stable for now. CT scans of head and chest right now to check fractures and hematomas

EMAIL: Fri, 1:04 pm:
Last night/this morning have brought a few changes. Nothing negative. I mentioned yesterday that his sedation was removed to see where his reflex/brain activity was and he moved all 4 limbs. I was in his room last night right before midnight and he did is again...ON his sedatives. Slow kicks, lost of motion in the right arm, mouth and nose flinches, back shifting. It was beautiful. The respirator tech says it's because he heard my voice, but something tells me it had much more to do with the loud metal notebook that she dropped which probably scared the living daylights out of him.

Mom and I went back again right before 6 am to wish him luck on his procedure. All his levels were relatively calm. His newest night nurse, Jessica, is AMAZING. She spent almost an hour with me explaining each of the machines, what they measure and what are good and bad readings. I feel more prepared. We're hoping to have her back again tonight.

The procedure went as well as it possibly could. The trach respirator and feeding tube are in, which leaves his mouth and lower half of his face free from pressure. He looks better already. Well, as good as you can look after multiple face fractures and brain trauma. But trust me...better.

There is a possible hematoma on his lung that the doctor mentioned to me today. After the CT scans of his head and chest, they're going in with a scope to check that out. Still knocked out from the procedures this morning with sedatives, we'd been told not to expect any reactions out of him at all. 90 minutes after the surgery, we're in the room and he starts to kick. Full shoulder shrug, back shift. That Tim, he'll surprise you.

Mom and I simply wait for results from scans, procedures and data reading. All things so far are positive. We both talk to him like he's lucid, because we don't have a reason to think otherwise. He just can't respond at the moment. Mom talks to him sweetly, I crack jokes. Bring us the family dog and it's like we're in our living room.

This evening when we have more info on his reactions, we'll start planning for the next few weeks. He's surprised us in a good way every day he's been here, so we're hoping that trend continues. More when I have it.

~Ashlee