Great news!

Mom called when we were on the way to dinner to tell me that they had taken Dad off the vent around 1pm and he was still off! They did a blood gas, and he's still off the vent, so obviously he's oxygenating well.

I love hearing good news, but it's rough because Mom is so critical of my every reaction. No matter what I say, it's not the right thing. I'm not excited enough or I don't have the right words to say. I've tried coming up with different answers and sounding as enthusiastic as I can, but it's hard when I'm trying to talk in front of the kids. They know some of what Pepa's been through, but I'm trying so hard to spare them the rest. If I am too enthusiastic, then they'll wonder why.

Initially I had an extremely guarded prognosis for Dad. I have always thought that he'd pull through physically. He was in awesome shape before the wreck. But the brain damage is what I worry about so much. It doesn't help that most of my (limited) adult experience is with neuro patients in an ICU. By the time they're off drips and off the vent, they're out of my unit and I have no idea how they're doing. So it's hard for me to think about how this might turn out. It's possible that Dad will totally recover (even though all the docs have said this is not an option). It's even more probable that Dad will partially recover.

I'm not an optimist by nature. When I looked in Dad's eyes (yes, I snagged the flashlight and did a pupil check) I didn't see him in there. And his pupils were SO sluggish. When Mom had told me that his pupils were reactive, I didn't think to ask how brisk they were responding. So when I arrived, hearing 600 miles of interpretations by Mom, I found that Dad actually looked a lot better than I thought he would. But he was less responsive than I thought he would be. And that was more worrisome.

So please keep Dad in your thoughts and prayers. He's come a long way but he has so far to go.