One Step Closer to Home

Monday morning began with good news.  Justin's temperature had remained normal throughout the night and up to this point has been stable.  The physiotherapists were back with more things for Justin to do. They have had him standing up and he has even taken a few steps!  He has also been doing some leg and arm exercises to keep his muscles from tightening up from laying around all day and night.  He continues to do the deep breathing as well.

Today they took out his chest tube and his wound catheter.  He is far less encumbered with tubes now so moving around is much easier and slightly less painful.  The surgeon has told the physiotherapist that she wants him to take an actual walk by the end of today so we have that to look forward to!  (He's actually NOT looking forward to it at all!)

The plan is to disconnect the ketamine infusion tomorrow and the morphine infusion on Thursday, leaving him with only his morphine button to press as needed.  The general consensus is that he will go home on Thursday or Friday if things keep progressing well and he is tolerating the the decrease in pain meds.  We just need to get him eating now.  The pain medication has suppressed his appetite so he has eaten very little over the past four days.  Hopefully, weaning him off these meds will increase it again so he can regain some strength.

I can see improvements in Justin already since they took out the chest tube.  He is adjusting his positioning in bed and looks to be far less uncomfortable doing so.  He is very sleepy though, as they gave him diazepam before the removal, and he has been sleeping it off throughout the afternoon.  All in all, it's been a good day and it seems we are on the right track toward recovery.  It's only going to get better and better from here on in!