Day 4 of recovery - Disappointment

10:00 am June 16: Today is my parent's 61st wedding anniversary. Hopefully it will be a good day for them and for Tesfaye. Unfortunately, when I arrive at the hospital I soon find out that Tesfaye is struggling a bit today. He is quite tired and still in substantial pain, and his lung functions are below target. They decide to give him an oxygen mask and to also use some medication through the mask to help expand his airways. The oxygen appears to bring up his levels to where they should be, but Tesfaye is bothered by how cold it feels. All of the Unit personnel are tied up in Round discussions, so I ask them to have Lise call me when she can.

Lise calls late morning and says they are concerned about how tired he is and the amount of pain medication he appears to need, which reduces his ability to move around and to cough;in turn this also exacerbates his lungs' still reduced functionality in their new position. She warns they may have to put back his breathing tube and send him to ICU, as they fear he could be developing an infection in his lungs.While they would like to avoid it if possible, it could be a case where "short term pain for long term gain" is what the doctor ordered. Then, while having a late lunch,I receive another call from Lise confirming what I hoped not to hear, that they decided to sedate him and reinsert his breathing tube and send him to ICU for monitoring.

2:30 pm: I tried to get there as quick as possibe with an interpreter in order to reassure Tesfaye, and since Melaku could not make it he referred me to a relative of his, Sosina that lives near the VGH; I called her and arranged to meet her. In the meantime, my wife who had arrived for a visit a little before me was very disturbed to see a team around Tesfaye. When I got to the room with Sosina,Tesfaye was already totally out of it and they wheeled him to ICU. As he was going to be pretty much asleep for the next many hours, we left. After work I managed to fit in an abridged work out, which felt good since I have been missing so many over the last while. I then stopped in to see Tesfaye in ICU around 9pm for about an hour. The nurse on duty with him through the night is Ashley, and she is very sweet.She had heard a little bit about Tesfaye's background and I filled her in on some more details, albeit in an abridged fashion. Tesfaye was very tired and sedated, and again he was not happy with his breathing tube reinserted. He made some hand gestures trying to say something, but I could not figure out all of it.I reassured him that everything will be fine and when the breathing tube is ready to come out he will be a lot stronger and will then get better faster. Stroking his head and squeezing his hand,I wished him a good sleep and told him I will be back in the morning.He seemed as peaceful as could be expected.