After a totally sleepless weekend and many doses of a major tranquillizer to help settle him, the doctors finally agreed on Monday morning that perhaps it was the drug that was causing the agitation. With the first dose of the new medication, Dad promptly went to sleep and has essentially stayed that way since.

It is such a relief to see him at rest finally. When he is awake, he is fairly well orientated and is able to be up and walk in the hall and you see glimpses of my sweet little dad. Unfortunately, with the heavy sedation he becomes quite confused especially when first waking up, often resulting in his pulling out his various tubes. The major concern right now is that he has not yet regained his ability to swallow, even though the surgeons are quite certain that there should be no impact from the operation and follow-up CT scan on Monday shows no evidence of a stroke.

Yesterday, we began the battle of now trying to convince the doctors that he is over sedated and they did finally agree to a very small decrease in his morning dose in the hopes that he will be awake more during the day. He was actually too sedated to participate in the swallow test or to walk any distance so the therapists requested a medication decrease and they have some pull.

We would appreciate your prayers specifically for his swallowing as this just keeps him in a constant cycle of instability. He can’t regulate his own fluids so he gets it IV or via nasogastric tube until he is over hydrated and his lungs fill up, they give him IV Lasix until he is so dry that his blood pressure drops so low that he is drowsy and confused, he pulls out the tubes so they tie him down which really agitates him and they have to bolus him with fluids and the cycle starts again. We are well aware that at the tender age of 85 any recovery will be slow and unpredictable but there are some very encouraging moments, especially when he starts teasing the nurses. Then you know that his real self is still alive and well.