Today from 5 to 6:45pm Rob was breathing on his own (the ventilator tube is still in in case he needs to be given oxygen.) The amount he was drawing in was higher than this morning which is a good sign. They measure his carbon dioxide levels afterwards to see if he is getting rid of that effectively. Hopefully he's improving on that too-they'll let us know soon. We'll go back to see him tonight--no doubt he'll be tired out. But such improvement from a few days ago! He is amazing us--it is so tough for someone with pnuemonia to breathe let alone add heart surgery recovery to that.
When they came in to start the cpap machine (to do the breathing) he wanted the t.v. on. That surprised us--it's the first he's asked for that. There was a car race on today that he wanted to see and that would have helped most likely to get his mind off the pain. He wanted the F-1 race but it didn't come through on the hospital t.v. Instead, he watched Nascar racing for a short while. It's nice to see his interest in fast cars is still there. He was very surprised and saddened to see the devastation in New Orleans and the south. He feels badly for Jen and Landon not being able to go back for a long time. A few days ago we asked if he wanted to hear what was going on in the news, but he said no--so that's another interesting point for today--that he was curious about "the world situation," as Pops would say.
He is noticing more of the pain now--they have him off one of the three pain meds. That is good because that helps his lungs and body start kicking into what it needs to do better.
His heart is doing great; that is healing well despite the pneumonia.
Again, thank you, thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and comments--they are all precious to us. We enjoy the times we can laugh, too. Denise
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