The roller coaster ride continues...

Hello all, well I have good and bad news, so I will start with the good news.

I was able to talk to the Doctor today. He told me that his burns are healing exceptionally well. At this point, they are not thinking that he will need any skin grafts at all. I was able to see his left ear today for the first time. It looked really good. His fever has been non existent today and when I left his temperature was still normal. He has had a very good day today, much better than yesterday. When I left this afternoon, after he was turned, he was holding strong with good oxygenation and the oxygen levels at 50% on the vent. We need many more of these good days, but it is all up to PJ right now. I was also able to see him move a bit. It turns out that they were lowering the paralyzing medicine to ensure that his body doesn't get too used to it. So I saw his head, lips and shoulders moving. At first I was a bit freaked out, but once they explained what was going on it made much more sense. And as anyone that knows PJ would expect, as soon as they let him do that he tried to take over completely and was overbreathing, so they had to give him more medicine for his own good.

The Bad news

He is still on the bed and his lungs are still producing a lot of "crud". They are bronching him everyday, and are taking chest X-Rays everyday to see how things are going. There is no other course of action according to the doctor. It is a waiting game, but the only therapy is what they are doing for him currently. It is a matter of him having several good days in a row. They will most likely make the decision on the Tracheotomy on Monday, and at this point I think it is the right thing to do for him. He has been on the ventilator for 16 days now, and they say that the longer you are on it can be damaging to the vocal cords. They most likely will take him off the bed on Tuesday at the latest, just to give him a break from the bed. He sustained the most internal injury of all the patiients it appears. He is a fighter, and I know that he is fighting. We would all like it to go quicker, but that is not happening at the rate we would like it.

That is what I know, so you know what I know. I am anxiously awaiting the time that I am able to give him crap about all of this, but for now I will continue to pray as I hope you all will as well.

Thanks for all the support, it has been tremendous.

Chris