Another good day! Ron's oxygen is now down to 35% and his saturation is staying at 98/99- which is great! His peep is currently 8 but they are going to start lowering that soon which is also one step closer to getting off the vent! His heart rate is 88 and blood pressure 106/66. His respirations are at 24 which are kind of high. They currently have his respirator set to match his breathing rate so he isn't fighting the machine, but they are hoping that they can slow down the respirator and his body will start to match the machine's rate.
His x-ray this morning was still a little patchy but the Doctor who read the x-ray hasn't seen his previous x-rays so we don't know how much has changed.

Physical Therapy is going well - he was able to walk a few steps to a chair in his room and was able to sit there for 30 minutes without getting light headed. It's a pretty uncomfortable chair so they are trying to get an easy chair in the room for him so he can sit for longer periods of time.

Doctor Darr said he wants him to do a swallowing evaluation tomorrow because he would like to get him off the tube feeding- he thinks Ron will progress quickly! The swallowing evaluation entails Ron eating applesauce or diced peaches that have blue dye in them and as long as there is no blue dye when they suction the trach he will be able to start eating again!

Due to the trach, Ron is still not able to "talk" but he can mouth words and is getting better at writing so he can communicate with everyone better.
Ron said he is up for some visitors ~ it's getting pretty boring for him now that he is alert and awake most of the day. Visiting hours are 9:00am-9:00pm and Regency Hospital only allows 2 visitors at a time and are being pretty strict on the policy.

If you would like to visit please call Andy at 419-409-0432 before you go so that we can make sure we don't have more people than allowed in the room at one time. To protect Ron from any outside germs they do require all visitors to wear masks, gloves and gowns (which are provided for you in a cart right outside his door)

Thanks to the Masons for your visit today and to all of you for your good wishes. Ron is reading all of your notes you've left him on the blog as I'm typing this.