Paw Paw - 1/8/07 (happy birthday, elvis)

When we went up to see Paw Paw at 8:30 tonight, he was still sleeping and still on the ventilator. His nurse told us that he started to wake up earlier, but he didn't respond to "sqeeze my hand" commands or anything like that (so he wasn't really awake). He was just kind of turning his head; she gave him 4mg of morphine because she thought he was in pain. Apparently the morphine caused his blood pressure to drop, so then they started him on a med to help bring it back up. His nurse doubted they'd give him any more morphine, but said that they'd give it in 1mg increments if they did. Dr. Kennedy (the pulmonary dr) and Dr. Girlach (the cardiologist) had by both been by to see him. Dr. Kennedy said she wanted to make sure Paw Paw was stable before taking him off the vent, so she was going to let him sleep tonight and try to wean him off the vent tomorrow morning. They'll probably keep him sedated as long as he's on the vent. So pray that he will stay stable and that he won't have any problems coming off the vent!

I mentioned our wonderful friends who kept us company in the waiting room today...here's George in the waiting room learning "why makeup matters."