I just got back from the hospital and felt encouraged as I personally witnessed Dad respond for the first time.  He wiggled his toes on command and also grabbed the nurse's hand and squeezed (all while seemingly remaining out).   They were encouraged by that, but they would be more encouraged if he were giving a thumbs up sign on command (or holding up 2 fingers would be even better).  They encouraged our family to try to get responses from him in that way as patients often respond better to familiar voices.

Dad is breathing on his own now, but they are keeping the ventilator in place until he passes the breathing exercises that they give him.  They are hoping to get it out tomorrow.

 I was given a detailed explanation of his CT scan from early this morning.  His injury is in the right frontal lobe and is fairly large.   However, she said again that if you are going to have a brain injury, that is where you want it.  In fact, when they have to do invasive procedures in the brain that is where they do them.  For one thing, the right side is usually less dominant.  Also, the injury is in the area that controls emotion.  IF we were to see changes in Dad, it most likely would be something to do with impulse control or little personality changes.  All of that is just a wait and see situation.  The swelling in his brain was somewhat worse, but because he is still responding they are not planning on doing anything invasive to relieve that at this time.  Brain swelling usually peaks around days 3-5 after injury, so they would expect it to start diminishing from here.

Jeff and I were slightly concerned that Dad is still so out when he has been taken off of the sedative.  We asked the nurse about that. She said it could be the pain meds or just the fact that it takes the brain a while to wake up after an injury as serious as his.  It is probably a combination of many factors.  At least he didn't appear to be in pain.  And the most important thing is that he is responding to commands, which is the most they expect at this time.

I also want to clarify that Dad is still classified as being in "critical" condition.  When we have mentioned things about him being stable in other posts, it just meant that his individual injuries were stabilizing.  But  he is still critical.  He has suffered some very serious, life-threatening injuries, but we feel very encouraged and feel as a family that he will pull through this,

Having said that, while Dad is in the ICU it is best to limit his visitors to those very closest to him at this time.  Please check before coming, or wait until thins are less critical.  When Dad is doing a little better and has come through the worst of this he is probably going to want visitors.  (We all know how social my dad is.)   We appreciate so very, very much the love and support that has been shown to Dad and our entire family at this time.

We will continue to keep everyone updated.