Road trip

The day began with a CT scan for Wiley. In which -- still in a drug-induced coma, mind you -- he tried to sit up and managed about 20 degrees! That's not supposed to happen, but we take it as a good sign - he wants to act and his will is strong.

The nursing staff had to be a bit more active in managing Wiley's functions after the scan; someone said, "Well, it's kind of like he's been on a road trip" (short a distance as it might be) "and he's just got to get settled back down again."

Nothing really remarkable on the CT, which is also really, really good news. The doc said that if Wiley remained in the state he was in, he wasn't even going to do another scan tomorrow. He also said that tomorrow they'd bring him out of the full coma, though I'm sure he will remain sedated.

This afternoon, the docs decided that Wiley really wasn't getting quite as much oxygen as they wanted or expected, and they ran some tests and found that the lower part of one lung wasn't really working effectively. They conducted some sort of saline wash of the lung to clean out any material that might be reducing function. But they didn't seem to find it particularly worrisome, though of course it doesn't sound good to anyone in the waiting room.

Today Nancy put a bit of a lockdown on visitation, keeping the visitors down to her, Tim, and Tyler. Their working assumption is that speaking quietly to Wiley with their familiar voices and providing their physical presence will be comforting to Wiley, even fully sedated. They brought in more pictures of Wiley to put up in his room, telling him what each of them were. They'd also brought in some cards that some of the neighborhood kids that Wiley's known his whole life had made and dropped by the house in the mailbox. Later this afternoon, Wiley's friend Kurt and his mom also brought by two poster/get well cards that he and his friends had made for Wiley, covered with messages from friends and photographs. Tim and Nancy brought those in for Wiley tonight.

Then the big surprise -- the docs started to reduce the sedation meds tonight, along with some other drugs being used to manage his blood pressure and lord knows what else, and while it might have been just a reflex in response to a bump of the hospital bed, it might not: Wiley opened his eyes a couple of times, and his mom and dad saw him. Just for an instant, but he seemed to be there. Later in the evening, Tim was holding his hand, and Wiley started to pound the bed with his hand. Then he started to move, seemingly agitated at all the tubes and equiment. Nancy and Tim were taken aback. They told him he needed to calm down, it was ok, they were there, he needed to rest. "Does it bug you when I touch you?" asked Tim. He nodded slightly. They asked him to squeeze their hands, and he did. He also opened his eyes, looked at them, and sunk back under. The nurse, who wasn't watching during all this, was dubious when they told her that Wiley was responsive. So she made him her own series of requests: wiggling fingers and toes on each side. He responded with each as requested. (Function on both sides!!!) Then she said, "If you're in pain, squeeze my hand. If you're not in pain, don't." No squeeze. Wow. Wow. Tim came out to the waiting room near tears as he relayed this. Nancy stayed in, told Wiley that he needed to be quiet and rest, and that they were going to go home now but would be back in the morning. As she said, with that kind of send off, she might be able to go home and pretend -- for just a little while -- that life was going to be normal, and she thought they should take it and the sleep it promised.

The nurse today told Nancy that head trauma recovery is not a linear process, it is a series of waves, ups and downs, moves forward and moves back. A pretty bumpy road for family and friends to travel with Wiley, but its the road we've got, and we're taking it.

(I was corrected today on timing for the days of greatest concern because Nance cleared this up with the doc: it was 1-3 days after the original surgery, not the second one. So one more day to spend on this particularly scary stretch of road.)

Day 2, down.