2:35pm

kinda funny.. we were eating lunch, waiting for the pager to go off, and every little sound mom heard (soda machine, cash register, etc) she thought was the pager. finally, beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. her eyes became big and wide, and she just stared blankly and asked, "what's that noise?"

=) oh, mom.

anyway, we made our way to the CVICU. We were nervous cuz we knew Dad wouldn't look too hot, but we were pleasantly surprised at how great he looked! He was hardly puffy, and he was just sleeping. Still intubated.

We knew Dad's #1 fear (even over dying) was to wake up in a panic, with the breathing tube down his throat. So we were nervous.

At that point, we just stood there and waited. Once he was awake enough to lift his head and take a breath on his own, they could take out the tube. Its kinda a double-edged sword. You want him to breathe on his own, but you don't want him coherent enough to realize he has tubes down his throat.

He woke up a couple times, shook his head in response, even grabbed mom's hand, but then he'd fall back asleep and relied on the machine to breathe for him. When he'd get closer to being awake and breathing on his own, he'd be in too much pain and required meds which would make him sleep. So it was a tricky balancing act for the doctor & nurse.

By the way, the staff is incredible. So thorough and patient.