Craig has been very active today, and is driving the nurses crazy by pulling on all the wires and tubes. This is good news from our perspective, of course, and we are starting to see some responses to our commands. Thanks to Stephanie (formerly) Streeter who came up yesterday evening and gave him a much needed haircut.

Craig is having a good day, very relaxed and eyes open most of the morning. Sunday is his 17th birthday. We are going to celebrate with an open house at the hospital patio by the pond or next to that in the cafeteria if it is stormy. We will do this from 3 to 6 pm, have some cake, and there will be big cards to sign. Everyone is welcome, so come by if you can.

Sorry for not posting an update yesterday. We have received enough complaints that I will try and avoid missing any days in the future! Craig is doing OK, and there have not been any additonal complications. What we need now is for him to wake up. He has shown short periods of recognition (5-10 minutes) but nothing sustained. From what I have read, this is typical when waking up from a coma. Before Craig can advance to the next level of care (rehab) he needs to be awake enough to respond the therapists and tolerate 3 hrs of therapy each day.

Please pray fro Craig to wake up!

Not much change today. Craig did make all day without any sedatives, however, which is a good thing. He had a CT scan which showed a couple small areas of inflammation which still remain, but nothing that the neurologist seemed concerned about. He rested comfortably today, which hopefully indicates that the beta blockers are working.

In a further effort to get out of the sedation cycle, the doctors today switched Craig to beta blockers in place of soma. The goal here is to treat the periodic increases in heart rate and breathing without using strong sedatives. We switched over today and should start to see the results tomorrow. He may have another infection and was put back on antibiotics. The doctors reminded us that there is really no textbook way to treat his current condition, and that we may have to try a few drug alternatives to find the right conditions for him to progress.

Craig is resting comfortably today with only periodic sedative injections to control shaking and withdrawal symptoms. His numbers are good and we are hopeful that we can continue to reduce or eliminate the sedatives altogether soon. Between injections, he will turn to us with his eyes and head when we talk to him. His eyes are more respsonsive than in the past days. He is continuing physical therapy each day, and they are actually standing him up to help his body readjust from being in bed for so long.

 

Thanks to all for your emails, continued prayers, and words of support. We really appreciate it.

After 25 days in ICU, Craig was moved to the intermediate care floor (level 3) today. This is a good sign as it shows that his condition is very stable and that there are no current complications. From our perspective, we get a nicer view and a little less intense atmosphere. Vistors are still limited, but the rules are less strict than ICU. The nuerologist discontinued all sedatives today, and Craig is only receiving periodic muscle relaxers (soma). The goal is to allow all of the narcotics to get out of his system. While the doctors would prefer him to be awake at this point, they are not surprised that he is not, given what he has been through and the dosages of strong sedatives he has had. Craig will stay in this area of the hospital until he is awake, responsive, and can start rehabilitation.

In an effort to get Craig awake, the doctors have discontinued the sedative IV. The main sedative used has been ativan, and he has been on such high doses that it is taking longer than expected to get it out of his system. He seemed more responsive tonight and we are hopeful that we will see more of him tomorrow. The nurses are still giving some sedatives (valium or demoral) as needed. All of the IV's have been discontinued with the exception of some normal saline, and this is a real improvement as he was on 8 separate IV treatments during his first week. Our main goal for now is to see him wake up and respond to us.

 

 

Craig had a procedure today to remove a filter that had been placed in his legs to prevent movement of blood clots. The filter was placed last week when the doctors were worried about clots. He underwent a fairly intensive physical therapy session today and tolerated it well. The doctors are still reducing the sedatives slowly, as he experienced some withdrawal symptoms (shaking and sweating) and while they very much want him to wake up, they don't want to aggravate his condition by going down too fast. Ashley loaded some new music onto his iPod, and he has been listening to it today.

Craig is improving slowly. He is still not awake, but the doctor's are decreasing the sedative levels with the goal of waking him up. There is a concern that if they proceed too quickly he may experience withdrawal symptoms from the high doses he has been on. While he does open his eyes, he is not responding to us yet.

 

He has been breathing on his own for 2-days, although the trach tube is still in place. It looks like the issue with the blood clots has passed, the ultrasound today showed no problems. The infection he has been fighting in his lungs also looks much better. He will start limited physical therapy tomorrow, to help regain muscle and joint movement.

 

Overall he is progressing according to what the doctors expect, and has been able to overcome the complications which have come up. Everything seems to take longer than we would like, and we are learning a lot of patience in this process.

Our goal here is to provide daily (or at least frequent) updates on Craig's recovery. Please know that your support and efforts on behalf of Craig and our family have been overwhelming, and much appreciated. Thanks to Barry Heim for helping us get this page up and running.

 

John