Update Re: Frank in hospital (6/29)

6/29

Last week, Frank had progressed well with the trach to the point that he was off the ventilator, breathing through the trach on his own with some oxygen, and getting used to eating our homemade food. He was able to get off the liquid tube feeding.

On June 24th, the night before his 64th birthday, Frank moved out of the ICU and into a room on the "floor". All was going well, to the point where it made sense to start weaning Frank from the trach, and plans were made for Frank to leave the hospital today, Tuesday. But when the trach was taken out yesterday, Frank didn't do well. It was a rough day. Frank had a hard time doing anything, eating included. By last night, he was in pretty bad shape, and the ICU was brought back on to the case. The decision was made to put the trach back in, and he was moved back into intensive care at 5am this morning.

The doctor says we are "waiting for the dust to settle". If all goes well, we may be going home in a few days, with the trach in, so that Frank can build up strength at home, so he is able to move around, re-build his muscles, cough again, and ultimately have the trach removed.

Frank is working very hard to get better, and it is still very, very challenging.