The best news we got this morning is that he's been breathing on his own since last night. The machine gives a tiny assist to overcome the resistance from the long tubes, but each breath is initiated by him. His mobility is greatly increased. We just got kicked out for his physical therapy session. And we're still waiting for the tube to get pulled out. Oh, and the hospital has a strict "no pictures" policy for the ICU. :-(
At 1:30 one of his doctors showed up to verify that he passed the parameters for getting his tube out. Flying colors. They pulled the tube and now they'll just monitor his breathing by checking blood gasses every few hours. Dad likes making sound now. We were asked to go easy on talking to him for a few hours.
I moved his arm around to get one of the monitor alarms to shut up and got his first words: "Thanks, Don."
"strict no pictures policy" is just code for "hurry up and take the photo." ;-) and yes..."Thanks, Don."
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