Ron began stirring around and opening his eyes some about 4:30 this afternoon! They also turned the vent all the way down and he was consistently breathing on his own so they extubated him around 6PM. He's still in and out (mostly out!) and at times his oxygen saturation drops a little too low for a while, mainly because he needs to get stuff coughed up out of his airways not due to lack of ability to move air. They were concerned that they needed to have a nurse who knew Ron well and would be especially mindful of him through the night. I had asked his nurse last night (charge nurse), who was very good, very attentive and she said she would be back tonight. She had never cared for him before but had helped other nurses when we were here previously so knew him well. But as we were leaving at 7 (they let us fudge a little since they had just extubated and he was awake), we found out she had to switch her schedule. We were praying, Jenna, a nurse he's had numerous times, would be assigned to him. Once again we were incredibly blessed! When we came in at 8:30, Ashley, one of our very favorite nurses (along with Jenna!), was in his room! YEAH! She has recently moved to 4ICU (Cardiac) but they were overstaffed tonight...3ICU had called her to see if she would take charge nurse on 3 for tonight and she agreed, as long as she had Mr. Nordell!!! She and Jenna work very closely so I know he'll be in especially good hands tonight!
Pulmonologist wants to be cautious, so they are putting him on a bi pap (?) tonight (forced oxygen through a mask). He still has a lot of the sedative in his system and needs a good amount of pain meds to keep him comfortable so they want to make sure he doesn't forget to breathe well. Won't be the most comfortable thing for him but it's better than the nasty tube down his throat!
He has not spoken as yet but has responded by squeezing a hand at times and even gave a couple of very forced smiles! It's great to see his heart rate in the double digits tonight; all afternoon it was in the 100-135 range caused by agitation from coming off the meds. It was really up there when they were trying to get him to cough. And his blood pressure is back down after having gone up considerably during the afternoon (while they were working towards extubating). It's good to see he is maintaining it even though he is totally off Levophed (BP med).
They are also decreasing his fluid level; he's pretty swollen but that should get better over the next few days.
To recap today: he's gone from being on 8 IV drips down to just 2; been removed from ventilator; and had a good report during wound care!!
Thank you, Father!! It's been a very good day!!!
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