Slowly up from the depths

If you come up too fast, you get the bends, right? Wiley’s coming up slowly. He did get his brain monitor out this afternoon, and it was apparently pretty painful; the nurse had to dose him with morphine, which pretty well put him back under for a while. (He even started snoring, which pretty quickly had his exhausted mother napping herself, in a chair in the corner of the room.)

It’s been a very tiring day for Wiley, starting with the CT scan this morning, then the breathing tube out, then the brain monitor out, and culminating tonight with the struggle to find his bearings and a comfortable position despite his brain fog. Without the restraints, but with the neck collar, foley, IV, and a supplemental oxygen mask (his oxygen level was low this afternoon, so they gave him an external mask with moist air, the better to help his throat recover), Wiley was only a little limited in his ability to move. Earlier in the evening, Grandma Esther sang to him, and that seemed to keep him quiet and calm, but when the music ended, the gymnastics began.

Turns out both his dad Tim and Uncle Steve, neither diminutive guys, as well as the nurse, were needed to keep Wiley from tying knots in his remaining tubes. He was even up on his knees at one point. It took all Tim and Steve’s strength to keep Wiley from getting completely twisted up. While they are very glad to have him out of the restraints, it looks like it’s going to be a pretty demanding job to let him stay that way. Wiley was asked by the nurse for the second time tonight if he was in pain, and since he indicated yes (a nod) this time, he got some morphine and is now resting a bit more quietly.

Speech is still beyond him; he tries to speak but cannot formulate words, though he can make some garbled sounds. Luckily nodding and shaking his head seem to be pretty manageable for him, and that will do for now.