John was admitted to the Trauma ICU at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, CA.
The first days for John were really tough. He had to be intubated through the mouth with tubes running down his throat along with a feeding tube through his nose and down to his stomach. It was really tough to see him in this state of being paralyzed and all the tubes. He later had a tracheotomy and a direct tube into his stomach. As a result of the intubation, he developed pneumonia and one evening ran a very high fever. He was heavily sedated to ease the pain which was evident in his heart rate and blood pressure .It was heartbreaking for all his friends to see him this way.
Over the next few days however, he started progressing and by his final day in the ICU, he was off of pain medication and his vitals were stabilized and his color was back to normal. He also became responsive again and can communicate with his eyes. Two blinks for yes, and eyes move back and forth for no. He even rolled his eyes when I joked to the nurse “that maybe we should shave his head like mine while he is just laying there?” 😉
It was nice to see him make so much progress in such a short time and he appreciated all his friends who visited daily.
