Jackie Update

Thank you to everyone who has commented on the blogs and also emailed. I genuinely appreciate knowing people are thinking about my brother and our family at this time.

Here's the update...

Short version - it's good news so far.

Long version:
They have him on some medication to make his heart contract and they are weaning him off that and his heart is contracting on its own.
Neither the heart pump nor the temp pacemaker have had to kick in - his heart has been working on its won.
He responds to verbal commands - move leg, twitch toe, etc.
This afternoon he wrote a note to communicate. This really made me feel good - his brain was working well enough to form thoughts and he could write - that all seemed like great news to me.
He had a tube down his throat so couldn't talk. They've had him restrained because he kept trying to take it out whenever he would rouse from the sedation at all. They planned to take it out tomorrow. Tonight about 7:30 one of his hands was free by accident and he pulled the tube out. His blood oxygen level has been good so they haven't put it back down. Hopefully that will continue.
The nurse said she wasn't sure about it yesterday - if he would make it through the night - but that today he is on track for how people recovery from a stent surgery.
He has a little bit of pneumonia in one lung but that's not abnormal in such a circumstance and they're giving him some antibiotics for that.
He recognizes all the family and has talked to them, as much as he can. Obviously, his throat is very sore from the tube being down it.

I felt better about things this morning when Jim (my other brother) went to see him and told me that Jackie didn't look too bad. Jim has had a heart attack and knows what people look like in such a circumstance, so I found that comforting.

Cathy has done a great job calling me everytime they've heard even a little bit of news. I am so thankful for that. I was planning to go to KY this coming weekend for Mary Ann and Jackie's 50th Anniversary Party - obviously, we're going to postpone that for a little bit. Now I'm not sure when I'm going. There are lots of people there at the moment so I can probably be more useful later during the recovery phase. We'll see. I'm just so relieved things are going as well as they are.

Overall, things seem to be going pretty well at the moment. The 48 hour mark will pass early tomorrow afternoon. We are all eager to get past that milestone.

Thank you, again, for all your good thoughts and prayers for Jackie and my family. Please continue to remember us. I will update things here. Thank you.