Wednesday, 4th November

MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING WITH HAPPINESS....

The first lot of good news was this morning when the sister told me that Jimmy's temperature had dropped overnight to 36,5.  And there I was praying that he had turned the corner.

And turn the corner he has!  They turned off his sedation this morning at 10am.  Because he has been so heavily sedated since Sunday they expected him to come out of sedation late tonight or early tomorrow morning.  They also turned the adrenaline down from 3 to 1 and his blood pressure is holding.  Not perfect yet but acceptable for his condition which is wonderful news.

Just before 5pm I went and stood next to him and held his hand and told him I was there and that I love him so much and he has to be strong and then he moved and tried to open his eyes.  He lifted his other arm out from under the sheet and let go of my hand and tried to straight away pull his pipes out.  The machines around him all started beeping and I nearly had a hard attack but I couldn't stop smiling.  The sister told me to hold down his arms.  She said he isn't completely out of sedation yet but he is reacting to my voice and can feel that there is something down his throat.  Jimmy started to cough but he can't cough with the pipe down his throat so they had to suction everything out his mouth that was coming up with the pressure of his body trying to cough.  Sister Thandi asked me not to talk so that she could try and relax him.  She asked me to go call another sister and then they explained that they would need to tie him down in order to stop him pulling out the pipes.  I didn't want to see him tied down and struggling so I told her I would leave and see her in the morning. As I walked out I could hear her telling him "You like to fight me Mr Smith...you need to relax....and in the morning your wife will be back.  Your family love you."

So....at the moment we are still not out of the woods but I am just so relieved that he has come out of sedation.  They will sedate him again now but it will not be as heavily as before.  Each morning at 6am they will stop the sedation for an hour and then the ventilator will be changed from breathing for him to just oxygen and they will ascertain whether or not he can breath properly on his own.  If he can't then they will sedate him again and carry on trying each morning until he can breath on his own.

He is also not over the pneumonia yet nor the septicaemia but a good sign is that his blood pressure and temperature are coming back to normal.  His white blood cell count, haemoglobin and platelets have also starting coming up now, I will have to confirm these numbers in tomorrow's update.

Even if he needs to be sedated for another day or two we know now his body is getting stronger and as this happens he will improve everyday.

As I sit here and type I feel myself going from total euphoria to getting very emotional about this all but I must say it does feel better to be crying from happiness rather than shear desperation.

As you all know we lost a dear friend to this exact same diagnoses in ICU earlier this year.  I have forced myself to be strong again but it has been hell inside my heart.  I was terrified that Jimmy wouldn't wake up.  I love this man so much and he must know that he can never give up on me.