Trache and Peg

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and healing thoughts. Also, thank you to those local friends who are keeping us fed; you all are amazing cooks, and we gain physical and emotional strength from your meals.

Kevin received his trache yesterday afternoon. We are very grateful that it was done before the holiday weekend. He also received a “peg,” a feeding tube that will give him nourishment. He hadn’t had any nourishment since Sunday evening. We all know the healthy Kevin would have had a major fit if he hadn’t eaten for five days, so we’re happy he’s getting nourishment now. The surgery went well, and he looks much more comfortable now than he was with the ET tube.

Kevin is still very sedated and can only squeeze our hands once in a while, or he sometimes barely nods or shakes his head in response. He is this sedated so he can get used to the trache and let it heal. Today they will work on weaning him off the sedatives and ventilator. We don’t know what his abilities or functionality will be when he comes off the sedatives, but we hope he won’t be very far behind where he was a week and a half ago when he was transferred to Santa Clara.

Currently, the word is that Kevin does not actually have pneumonia—it was a false alarm. We hope that’s true, so that the complications are kept to a minimum!

This morning, Kevin’s nurse decided that Kevin was aware enough to enjoy listening to the radio. She scanned through the stations as Kevin shook his head until she found the classic rock station, which made Kevin nod. When I walked into his room, “Taking Care of Business” was playing as the nurse explained to us that Kevin’s bloodwork is stable and last night’s CT scan most likely shows no bad changes. The song seemed rather appropriate; everyone, including the rest of Kevin’s body, is working overtime to make him healthy again.