Dave spiked a fever last night, so the doctors changed his antibiotics to cover whatever is bugging him.  Despite that, he continues on the path described yesterday, sitting in a chair again this afternoon and eating three puddings for dessert.  They've nominated him for a floor bed (i.e., moving him out of the ICU) as soon as one becomes available.  He'll still be in isolation there, so we're still holding off on visitors.  Please be patient and we will do our best to have Dave ready to receive soon.  

I asked him a slightly complicated question today.  He hesitated, then asked, "Can I have a re-match?" I changed it to a yes-or-no response, which he managed quite nicely.

Dave eating!

Not only did Dave get to eat today for the first time in two weeks, he was sitting for the first time in two weeks and shaved, ditto.  He is still on those strong antibiotics and his nurse thinks he'll be in isolation for quite a while yet, but so far he is looking significantly stronger every day.  He smiled about the creativity he has provoked from Pete and Ted, particular at the "hosannas/bananas" rhyme (see previous post comments).

This morning Yvonne got a big smile out of Dave.  He also smiled when I told him that Peter was jealous that Dave's blog had more followers than Pete's.  This afternoon he was able to manage eating ice chips, and when Barb and Fred stopped by this evening he said, "Enough about me. How about you?"

Dave is hungry today!  He would like bananas and oatmeal, but the doctors are not ready to feed him until he is a little stronger.  We're hoping he'll be able to eat later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, he seems more comfortable than yesterday and is communicating a little better. 

Great News!!!

It's the best Thanksgiving we've ever had:  Dave got off the ventilator about an hour before we arrived at the hospital today and has even been able to say a very few words, among them "Mary" (as in Trunk) and "Dave Landry", to find out if they were in the loop, which they most certainly are.  His first words to me were, upon my greeting him with "Dave, I'm so glad to see you!", "Glad to be here."  His throat is very sore and he is quite weak, so we didn't go much beyond establishing what hurt and what did not, but he is very much with us!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

about visiting Dave

Several of you have been asking about visiting Dave.  While we in the waiting room love to have visitors and understand, believe me, how anxious you feel, Dave is still in isolation for that pneumonia, and we think he will appreciate visitors more when he is feeling a little better.  Thanks again to everyone for the incredible support your love for Dave has provoked.

more (gradual) improvement

When Yvonne and I showed up today at the hospital, Dave had been moved to the regular ICU, where there had not been an available bed when he was admitted (he's been "boarding" at the cardiac ICU).  We found him initiating his own breathing, which is a huge step forward, but still on ventilator support.  He also has not had a fever for a couple of days now, or just a tiny one, and looks better, too.  We have high hopes the doctors can get him off the ventilator before next week (that's the goal).  He shook or nodded his head to questions today about whether he is feeling pain and whether he understands what was just said.  In short, Dave is doing better physically and mentally today, and we are hoping along with you for continued progress in this direction.

We have a winner

Yes, trivia fans, the mystery subscription has been identified, we are dedicating Dave's progress today to our lucky winner! As for the rest of you, don't get discouraged! We are sure to be playing again soon! Stay tuned to WDAV, all Dave, all the time. Coming up, a commercial-free block of Classic Dave, kicking off with a reading from Nietzsche, so put those headphones on and kick back! Friederich?...

Dave trivia question 2

Does anyone out there have a gift subscription from Dave to the New York Times?
Thanks,
Dave Squad

Continuing Improvement

Dave did well last night and today.  He's been fever-free since yesterday and was notably more wakeful and responsive today.  An EEG confirmed more waking activity and even the nurse said he looked better today.  We are hopeful that they will be able to take him off the ventilator by the end of the week.  For that to happen, he will have to be more responsive than he is now.  So send all your healing-lungs and organized brain vibes.

Dave Trivia Question

Anybody out there in Daveland know what he did with the harpsichord?

Progress!

I am posting this from the hospital. On our arrival, Marg and Yvonne went in to see Dave... and were greeted with a smile! Yvonne ran to get me and I rushed in to be rewarded with clear recognition from Dave. Figuring that he would deduce from my presence that something major was up. I gave him a brief outline of events. He became agitated and we had to step out.
Thanks for all your caring messages.

Pete

Dave did well last night and today.  They say his temperature is going to go up and down this week, but it was mostly down.  When Yvonne and I greeted him this morning, we were pretty sure he was trying to open his eyes in response.  Early in the afternoon I saw the same thing, but it seemed more definite.  And before I left late this afternoon, I am sure that Dave responded cooperatively when I asked him to open his eyes for me. 

Dave had a small surgery on an infected arm today, which went well and may really help reduce those fevers that have been worrying us.  His temp was down this morning, and the pneumonia seems to be improving.  All his brothers and sisters, numerous other relatives, and some close friends have converged on the intensive care unit, enlivening the waiting area immensely throughout the course of the day and providing love and support.

While Dave continues to struggle with some very nasty pneumonia, with a higher temperature today and a switch to a stronger antibiotic, we feel more hopeful about the possibility that he may not have suffered brain damage, after talking with his neurologist.  However, it is still very much a slow watch and wait, with little we can do to influence the course.  We continue to be very impressed, satisfied, and grateful for the good care he is receiving at St. Vincents.

Thursday:  Dave had some ups and downs today. He's continuing to fight the pneumonia, his temperature down during most of the day, but up again towards evening.  A piece of good news was his flawless MRI, showing no signs of vessel damage or brain swelling.  But he had to be put on medicine to support his blood pressure, and is under continued sedation, making it difficult to judge his mental condition.  We are continuing to wait and see, and are very grateful for all of your positive thoughts, prayers, calls and emails.

MRI results

Today we finally got the results of Dave's MRI, which apparently did not show much. The good news is that this means that it didn't show any specific trauma or damage. The bad news is that the MRI also was unable to give us anything very specific. It's not like the MRI is able to say "He'll be fine after a month of rehab." So the doctor seemed a bit more encouraged. He also thought Dave might be showing more purposeful movement, but it's tough to really say, since most of the day, he was on sedation, which tends to reduce most of his movements. 

There was also additional concern about whatever infection he might have. His temperature was up for most of the day, and the doctors were worried enough about his condition that they upgraded the sterile precautions that we were supposed to observe from "wash hands before touching him" to "put on rubber gloves before touching him." So he's still in a very fragile condition. At least this way, Peter is less tempted to pencil goatees and Harry Potter glasses onto Dave while he's sleeping. 

Wednesday in the hospital

Not a lot different today than yesterday, with the exception that Dave's fever had gone up a bit. We couldn't find someone to give us an exact number, but he felt hot and was sweating a bit, and the docs were going to try a new antibiotic. 

I had hoped that Dave might be more animated, but he had pulled out one of his IVs from moving around, and so the hospital staff had responded by putting him back on sedation. We'd asked if there was some way to check Dave's brain activity with an EEG, but since he was on sedation, a side-effect is that there would be little to see on an EEG, so that wouldn't really tell us anything. 

We'd also hoped to have an MRI by now, but that hasn't been done yet. Still, the attending physician told us that an MRI was unlikely to tell us much, and we'd see more about Dave's progress based on his physical improvement: moving, responding to commands, etc., and, because of either his condition or the sedation, we weren't seeing much of that, 

So, this is all to say that the only thing different on Wednesday was that Dave's fever was up, and other than that, no improvement we could detect. 

In addition to Pete, Pam, Yvonne, and Margo, we're also expecting visits from a couple of more sibs--Dan and Steve--on Thursday night. Hopefully, we'll have seen some improvement by then. 

Notes--Tuesday

Here is my notes from Tuesday night:

Today was Dave's fifth day in the hospital. Dave seemed more responsive than he did on Monday. He opened his eyes, which he was not doing yesterday, and seemed more active in moving his limbs. His fever was down from his high of 104 degrees to a more normal temp.

I spoke to his attending physician, and told him that I found this encouraging. The doctor was less encouraged. He said that he expected more significant improvement by this point, with five days in intensive care. He was worried that some of the reflex movements that Dave was exhibiting might suggest significant damage to the brain. Dave was coughing quite a bit, and there was still quite a bit of crud in his lungs, which the doc thinks might have been caused when he might have aspirated after seizing. They ordered an X-ray for his chest and an MRI, but did not do them before this post. Since it seemed that Dave was no longer experiencing seizures, they had taken him off his anti-seizure medication, as well as his sedation, which we hoped would wake him up more. 

I spent the day reading to Dave and making snarky remarks about the text. Dave also likes zinging, so I hoped this might pull him in a bit more, but I'm not sure it was making much of an impact. 

Rounds occur twice daily, and on the second round, the attending observed that Dave seemed to be moving a bit more, perhaps as a result of the reduced sedation, and he seemed slightly more optimistic, although he was still very concerned about brain injury. He said we should continue to watch and see what happens. 

There is still a lot of cause for concern. The first is brain damage. While it was good that Dave was opening his eyes, he didn't seem to be focusing on any face or voice, and he wasn't responding to commands. Another concern was his lungs, since he seemed to have a lot of secretions down there, and the staff was suctioning him quite a bit. 

We now have a lot of people on site to offer a hand. Margo, Pete, Pam, Yvonne, and I are all there to try and help out. It's just frustrating, because there doesn't seem to be much we can do. Luckily, Margo has been a dynamo, and Yvonne is a nursing pro, so she actually knows what's happening and what should be happening. We're expecting more in a couple days. 

A quick note from Peter

After Pam's whirlwind virtuostic efforts to put a trip together we have arrived and did manage to spend time with Dave. The short story is that he looks scary, but looks aren't everything. The doctors refuse to give hope or snuff it. The phrase of the day is "We wait."

Mike spent much more time with Dave than I did, and will file a more comprehensive report later. If there are any conflicts of fact or tone, go with Mike's version. My read now is worry, but do not despair.

Love,

Pete

From Margo: Update Nov. 17

Dear concerned relatives and close friends,

Dave is in serious condition after having seizures on Friday evening. Dave didn't have any contact info on him (though he did have ID) or close friends who knew who to contact near by, so I didn't learn about it until his building manager checked his emergency contact info this morning and called me.

Here is a summary of what the doctors told me on evening rounds tonight.

Dave is in intensive care at St. Vincent Hospital. He had a seizure outside his apartment building some time on Friday evening. Apparently neighbors saw him having the seizure and called an ambulance. The doctor says he was talking in the ambulance, but then had more seizure activity. St. Vincents is only about four blocks from his house. At the hospital, he was sedated and given anti-seizure medication, and had appropriate tests including blood screening, CAT scans and EEGs. At some later point he developed pneumonia symptoms and a fever. He is being given broad spectrum antibiotics to counter any bug that could have caused the seizures as well as the pneumonia, and is on a ventilator to allow him to rest instead of struggling to breathe. He has been unconscious since entering the hospital as far as I know, so I'm pretty sure he is not even aware that he is in the hospital or that three days have gone by, and as long as they keep the sedation going he is not uncomfortable. He was unresponsive as long as I was there today. This evening his fever is down below 99.

After rounds, the chief doctor who spoke to me, said that his brain is not showing the signs they'd like to see in a person who is recovering from a seizure. He is not certain, and says we need to wait and see how Dave does, but there is a possibility that enough time went by between having the seizure and getting care that he might have suffered some brain damage. When they try to take him off the ventilator his breathing gets out of sync and they have to put him back on. He's in a coma, the doctor said, but it is too early to predict anything. EEGs show no seizure centers, so that seems to be abating, but he is still on anti-seizure medication.


They still don't know what caused the seizures.

Mike is spending some more time there this evening while I've come home to recharge for tomorrow. The doctors all agreed that Dave seems stable enough that going home to get some sleep is a good idea, and Mike will be doing that too. I was impressed with the care and attention Dave is getting from the plentiful staff. I am planning to be back tomorrow mid-morning unless something changes and they call me before that.

Yvonne is arriving at 3pm tomorrow, and it seems that Pete and Pam are planning to come and may even be getting on a plane tonight. Wiley also called and said he is planning to come Friday afternoon.

Love,
margo