Recovery Room:Day Two - breathing tube comes out?

Sunday June14,7:30 am: Life seems to get in the way of getting much sleep these days. Got up to get ready to take my 18 year old son Justin to the airport to catch his flight to Shanghai. He is interning with a real estate company there for around two months. My son-in-law Jim came along to say goodbye. Justin was tired but in good spirits and ready for his new adventure. After saying our goodbyes Jim and I went for some breakfast. I then dropped Jim off and headed to the hospital, where Jim would meet me later.

Tesfaye colour was looking a little better, but his CO2 levels in his blood were still not at a point where they were prepared to take out the breathing tube. Again it was clear that it was very uncomfortable for Tesfaye with the breathing tube inserted. Rather than having Melaku come all the way to the hospital I called him up on the telephone and had him communicate to Tesfaye that if he can try to reduce a little the frequency of the pain medication and stay awake a bit more it may speed up the lung functionality and allow the tube to come out sooner. He understood what Melaku was saying and I believe was going to try to do that. Eventually Jim and I left as we were going to meet up with Haley to attend some house viewing appointments and other family member were going to come visit during the afternoon.

Later that afternoon I received the good news that Tesfaye had progressed to the point where they could take out the breathing tube and they were moving him to the Spinal Step Down Unit. My daughter Stephanie and Brandon visited him and brought two cute stuffed animals that Nanci had bought for him: a Lion for being brave and strong, and a Giraffe representing being tall. They performed a quasi puppet show with the stuffed animals as props, which Tesfaye apparently did find amusing. I managed to see him later, and he looked much more comfortable without the tube, but still drowsy from the pain medication. Looking forward to a steady path of improvement from tomorrow on.