09/29/2007 Update

September 29th, 2007 by shahin

Shahin actually spoke (one word) for the first time in weeks yesterday!  They removed the tube going to his tracheotomy plug, causing him to breath by himself instead of the machine doing the work for him.  After a little bit of discomfort, he started doing OK.  Initially they wanted to get him to breathe by himself for 15 minutes but ended up letting him go for an hour.  This is the first step in weaning him off the machine.  The hope is to have him completely off of it and the trache tube removed by the end of this week.

Anyway, while he was breathing on his own, the doctor asked him to say one word while he covered the hole in his throat (so that the air will come out of his mouth and not the hole) with his finger.  The word was a very rough sounding “MOM”, which drew quite a few tears out of mom.

His white count is 21,500.  Not bad at all!  It is down from 26,000 from yesterday.  Remember, the normal range is 10,000 to 15,000, so he is close.  All other vitals are keeping very steady.

One other goal for the week is to have him off the continous dialysis and on the normal - 3 times a week - version.  This sould give his kidneys a nudge to wake up.

We are still awaiting the arrival of gas and urine!!!!

I will probably start doing the updates every other day, unless there are dramatic changes.  This is certainly a good sign that he is on his way to getting better and stronger every day.

His score for the day…..  Holding at a 6.