Evening update

So far, so good!

Andrew has opened his eyes a few times today and wiggled his toes. The doctors are starting to decrease the dosage on some of the medications (he's on about 8 or 9 different drugs) and they're lowering the pressure on the ventilator. He's on an oscillating ventilator, which basically keeps his lungs inflated and just pulses them very fast - 9 times per second. So far, he seems to be responding well. They're keeping his blood pressure up to help the blood and oxygen profuse throught his body. His CO2 levels have dropped down into the normal range from being over twice normal just before the surgery, and the O2 saturation levels are staying high.

Kidneys are still a bit out of whack, but that's to be expected. Getting the lungs functioning properly is the main goal right now.

Andrew's on a pacemaker, not because his heart's not working, but because they're trying to keep the heart rate high (along with the BP). But this evening, they dialed it back from 175bpm where the pacemaker was doing most of the work to keep that rate up down to around 150bpm which is close to his natural heart rate right now.

That's about all right now. Feel free to leave comments below - they're publicly readable - or email us privately (doug@alumni.rice.edu and thaunsperger@alumni.rice.edu).