Hallelujah!

We have found the right drug! (we hope) The Pulmonologist did a brochoscopy of his lungs to look for foreign objects or something irritating but found nothing, yeah! They cleaned out a bunch of yucky pneumonia and took a sample. As of this morning the culture was not growing anything which is a great sign that we have the right antibiotic. He is still getting a fever through last night but it could a) still be the pneumonia he is fighting b) be a drug response or c) he could have messed up his body temperature regulation from going without oxygen. The last one is a random possibility by the Pulm Doc which they have to at least entertain since no one actually SAW him 'collapse.' Let's hope it's not 'c.'


From what I can tell I think this is probably a result of the pneumonia because his temperatures have been MUCH better today, in fact as of 5 pm he has not needed one drop of Tylenol today. We got the results of his MRI and everything looks perfect. So officially his EKG is perfect, Cardiac Echo is perfect, Brain is perfect and neurological tests are looking positive. This is wonderful news. When ever he wakes up we always make sure to tell him that he is safe, at the hospital and that his tests have all come back normal from his head to his toes. We want to make sure that he does not think he has a brain tumor like my uncle who died exactly one month to the day of my dad's cardiac arrest. And also my dad has always been afraid of being paralyzed or left as a vegetable so we always reassure him that this is not the case.


We did discover today that he needs to be sedated a bit more than we have been giving him starting around 3pm today. The day before he had a mix of the old sedative which takes about 24 to 48 hours to get out of the system. So we thought that maybe he could handle the same amount today but the old stuff is out and it was so not enough. He started to panic a bit because it's just so uncomfortable with a tube down your throat. I had to run out and get the nurse while trying to calm my dad down. They were able to sedate him and get him more comfortable. We are hoping that if the fever stays away tonight and the chest xray is improved that we can work on getting him off the ventilator by Saturday. Please pray for good results tomorrow and another day of improvement.

P.S. I have been so touched by all your prayers and comments of support. It has meant the world to me and my family to know so many people have been praying for Daddy Hammer. My ultimate prayer is for my father to get well so that he can enjoy being "Grandpa Hammer" some day soon!