Lots to report today.

First of all, as I posted earlier today, the big news of the day is that Dad was released from the Intensive Care Unit and transferred to the Trauma Unit of the hospital.  This was big news as it signifies that Dad's status is no longer considered critical.  This is really excellent news.  He was in ICU for exactly two weeks; two weeks that have both felt like an eternity and have somehow also flown by. 

The unit that Dad is in now is not actually a "regular" hospital unit as I reported earlier.  It is still a more highly monitored area of the hospital for more serious cases, just not at the level of the ICU.  In fact, he still has a nurse's assistant assigned to monitor him around the clock.  They felt that he still needed this constant monitoring for his own safety.  He still tries to pull out the various tubes and wires on his body.  As of today there is one less tube for him to pull out, however.  Dad had his chest tube removed this morning.  One more step in the healing process.

Dad is still considered serious.  He still has a long way to go.  The physical therapist conveyed how important it is that he gets lots of rest, and that when he rests that he is allowed to sleep deeply.  They are trying to get him to sleep deeply and then wake up more fully, and not just doze all day.  Because of his still serious injuries, his need for deep sleep and lots of rest, his heavy therapy schedule, and his still foggy mental status, we have been asked to keep his visitors to a minimum and to limit them to immediate family members.

 Dad has really been struggling to rest well today. Because of this, they once again gave him some pain medication and also had to administer blood pressure medication.

Besides the noteworthy move out of ICU, there were other significant notes from today.  Dad was cleared as stable enough for his facial reconstructive surgery and that has tentatively been scheduled for Wednesday.  Because his is an inpatient surgery, it is possible that his surgery could be pushed to later in the week if emergency surgeries come up in the meantime.   As far as the surgery itself goes, the plastic surgeon told us that the surgery will not need to be as complicated as they had previously expected.  For one thing, they will no longer have to wire his jaw shut during surgery.  Also, the only bone needing repair work on the left side of his face is his nose, which has a bump sticking out.  They will need to  plate that bone to straighten it, and will remove the plate after a week.  The repair work on his right side will be more extensive.  The bones in his right eye socket will need to be filled in to push his eye outward (it is currently sunken in due to the fractures).  His eyelid will also have to be pulled up with stitches.  His eye will require a patch for a few days after surgery.

Speaking of Dad's right eye, we had previously been told that Dad may have lost all sight in that eye from the accident.  Tests of the eye before today did not produce any muscular response of the eye or any response to light and the Dr. had indicated that it did not look promising for Dad to have any vision in that eye. Today, however, Dad's right eye did show a little response to light as well as a bit of muscular response.  This is a really good sign that some healing is taking place.  The Dr. said that Dad may still regain some vision in his right eye.  It  most likely will not return to normal and will not be as good as his left eye, but at least there is still some hope that he is not completely blind in that eye. 

The pupil in Dad's left eye is damaged and remains dilated at all times.  We have been told that this is something that may with time correct on its own.  If it does not, then way down the road there are some procedures that can be done to reduce sensitivity to light and protect his eye.  These various eye problems have been troubling to us, so we are hoping for the best on all counts.

The neuro surgery team also consulted with my mom and sister today.  They have officially declared that it appears that Dad will not be needing their service, and they are releasing him from the constant monitoring of his brain injury.  They will do a follow up with him in a month and perform another CT scan at that time. She explained that Dad's brain injury had been labeled "moderate" on a scale of light, moderate, or severe.  They are hopeful for a full recovery for Dad, but cannot make any promises.  It will take months of recovery time for his brain to finish healing and he will experience difficulties during that time.  The areas that  will most likely be affected during that time are short term memory, judgment, and decision making.  They will not have a complete picture of the areas that Dad will need help in until he is talking and a full neurological exam can be given.  Brain injuries are slow to heal and can be unpredictable, so we really just have to wait and see what his outcome will be. 

So the goals with Dad for the next little while are to strengthen his muscles and motor skills after having been immobile for 2 weeks, to work on his speech and communication, to get his facial reconstruction surgery out of the way and, most importantly, to continue resting and healing.  As a family we understand that this is going to be a long, sometimes slow, process for Dad (and for all of us), but we are encouraged by the positive developments of the last couple of days.   Thank you again to all of you for your care and support (and prayers!).   This experience has helped us all to realize what an awesome net of people we all have to fall on and rely on during tough times.  We are so blessed.