Chuggin right along

CPT Rob Yllescas

Chuggin right along Posted: 20 Nov 2008 09:58 PM CST Well, today started off has a hard one for me. I was feeling really down and emotional. I went to the hospital to see Rob and brought my laptop. I had downloaded a bunch of songs that reminded me of him and I. I also had a slide show playing with all our pictures. I put it on the bedside table in front of him and turned it on. When the songs started playing, tears began to trickle down his cheeks. He never took his eyes off of me. I couldn't help but cry too. You're mourning the past, present, and unknown of the future. I've never loved my husband more than I did at that exact moment. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind or heart that we will get through this-together. Today Rob was a lot more "aware". He's tracking people in the room. When someone comes in, he looks at them. I think the tracking of the fingers is really hard for him right now because it takes a lot of concentration and he is so tired and, I'm sure, has a pounding headache. When I tell him to look at me, he will. The nurse told me that instead of trying to get him to squeeze my fingers (because this could just be a reflex), to try to get him to do a thumbs up. I asked him to do this and at times you could see he was trying by stiffening up his arm and lifting his whole arm slightly. Tonight he had to get a heparin shot in his stomach to help prevent clots. This is only a small needle but the heparin burns some as it goes in. I was holding his hand and when he got it, he squeezed by hand really hard and lifted up his arm slightly. The doctor came by and said that he is REALLY happy with how Rob is doing. He said today is the first time that Rob has responded to commands from him. He would ask him to open and close his eyes on command and Rob followed all of them! He also said his kidneys are doing what they need to do, his bili continues to go down, his electrolytes (calcium, sodium, etc) are doing much better and today is the first time since this attack happened that Rob went 24 hours without receiving blood because his blood counts have been stable. They also said as of now, the left leg where they closed it looks good. He asked me if I thought I could get him to respond with a one blink for yes and two blink for no to see if he was in pain. With the dr there, I asked Rob if he was in pain and if he was to blink once and twice if not. Rob very intentionally blinked once!!!! The dr said that he had no doubt Rob responded to that command. So, they are going to increase his pain meds some but continue to ask Rob so they can keep him comfortable but not too sedated. I was also telling the dr how Rob moved his arm when I was trying to get him to give me a thumbs up. He said that is how the body works. The bigger muscles will respond before the fine motor muscles. He feels Rob is on the right path. I am SOOO excited!!!!! Also, as I was getting ready to leave Rob tonight, they were taking him to change out his feeding tube so that he can get that nasogastric tube out of his nose! YEAH, no more tubes in the nose. :) So, please continue to pray for this continued progress and for his surgery tomorrow. When they close the legs, they have to take some bone off so that they can get the skin around to cover it. Let's pray that they don't have to take too much bone and he can still keep most of his below the knee. GOD IS GOOD. ALL THE PRAYER WARRIORS ARE OUT IN FULL FORCE!!!!