Today brought some of the biggest milestones yet.
The breathing tube came out. He was intubated Sunday evening after arriving at the hospital, so it’s been nearly two days — having it gone felt like a real turning point. Along with it, they stopped the blood pressure medication — his body is regulating on its own now, which the team took as a very good sign.
For a couple of hours after the tube came out, he had to stay quiet and rest his throat. But once the physician’s assistant started talking with him and encouraging him to respond, we heard it — his voice. Raspy and working hard, but there. He said our names. He knew who we were. Jeremy, Jeannie, me — he got us all.
He’s clearly in there. You can see it in his eyes when he’s reaching for a word — he knows the answer, the path to it is just longer right now. Some things come out, some don’t yet. His writing is still a work in progress, too (we had a good laugh about what may or may not have been Egyptian calligraphy on the notepad). His eyesight still seems a little foggy, which might be contributing to some of that.
The evening ended on a sweet note — Jeremy and Hannah got to help feed him his first real meal. He’s still working on coordination, but he ate. And he let them take care of him, which felt like its own kind of gift.
He also finally got his MRI done today, which should give the doctors a much clearer picture of what happened and what comes next.
All in all — another day of real, meaningful progress. We’re moving in the right direction.
