Day 11 of Recovery - Extubation accomplished: onwards and upwards!

9:30 am, June 23,2009: I meet up with Nanci at the hospital to see what this morning might bring. Nurse Karen and the Respiratory Therapists Brian and Deirdre are doing their thing. The amount of breathing assist that the ventilator was programmed for was still in a reduced mode and Tesfaye was stable and looking pretty good and alert. "Nurse" Nanci (my wife would have made a great nurse) and I had an upbeat chat with Tesfaye. Nanci had brought another little stuffed animal, this time a colourful parrot to symbolize our pet cockatoo Mango. We succeeded in getting Tesfaye smiling behind his tube as we did a little Mango imitating with the stuffed animal as a prop.

Dr. George Isac came by and was quite optimistic that they would be in a position to remove the breathing tube in the next day or so, possibly as early as this afternoon. They told Tesfaye that was the plan, and that he would now feel the breathing become a harder task for him as they were going to reduce the machine breathing assist to a negligible level; at the same time the pain medication was going to be altered so that he would be able to stay more awake. As they were going to get him seated upright in a chair very soon, he received a boost of pain medication through his tube, which again seemed to trigger some nausea in him. Accordingly they were going to give him some gravol type medicine and defer the sitting physio for about an hour, so there was no point in me waiting any further.

5:45 pm, June 23, 2009: I called the ICU unit to see if they had perchance managed to remove the tube yet, and I was pleased to actually have Lise get on the phone and tell me that in fact the tube was out! Lise said he seemed a little on the quiet side under the circumstances, and she hoped that he wasn't concerned about anything, because he was doing well with the tube out. I told her that I would be coming back to see him late afternoon with Melaku and would reassure him that what he has gone through is normal and that every day should get better from here. I made arrangements to meet Melaku at 5:45, excited to be seeing Tesfaye without the tube again.

When we walked in it was such an amazing and pleasant change to be able to see Tesfaye's handsome features and winsome smile again. He was happy, and we were both so happy for him; I felt better just looking at him, so I could imagine how much better he must feel. I wished I could stay longer to savour the moment, but I had to attend a volunteer appreciation bbq at Louis Brier seniors home and hospital to say a few words of thanks on behalf of the Board. Just as I was leaving my son Adam, now back from his trip to Europe, showed up with Brooke to say hello for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Seeing Tesfaye with the breathing tube out certainly put me in a good mood, and I really feel that with the kind of determination that Tesfaye possesses we should start seeing marked improvement in his condition on a daily basis going forward.