Wednesday Update For Ben

Got to the hospital around 9:30 AM. Ben was dozing but the nurse (Nick) and the student nurse (Jordan) were in his room checking his vitals and giving him his medications and antibiotics. They started him on the "breathing trial" at 8:30 AM before I got there. The breathing trial is what they do to try to wean him from the ventilator. Yesterday he only did 10 minutes before he got worn out, but today, he was still breathing mostly on his own from 8:30 AM until I left around 1:30 PM and as far as I know, they were going to keep him on the trial for a little longer. I didn't get to talk to any doctors today, but Nick told me that Dr. Han is now his ICU doctor and he came in and checked on Ben this morning. He said to put him back on the ventilator after the breathing trial, that he was not quite ready to remove Ben from it yet. He told them to keep giving Ben his medications, Fibersource and antibiotics. While I was there, Ben would wake up now and then but then he would doze off again and Nick said it was probably because he was so tired from breathing on his own for so long. They said he was breathing pretty good and doing this makes his lungs stronger. The doctor also said Ben's kidneys are still getting better each day. Ben's vitals were good while I was there. His temperature was 99.3° so that was good. A group of dermatology people came in to check out the sore on his bottom and any other skin problems he might have. They have determined that the sore on his bottom is NOT a bed sore but was caused from when he was at Henry Mayo and Ben had diarrhea and the nurses at Henry Mayo did not realize so he had been laying in his excrement until they would come to turn him in the bed. So it's kind of like diaper rash, but they said it seemed to be healing. Ben was trying to talk to me, even though he has the vent tube in his mouth and he'd get mad because I kept telling him he could not come home until he was well. I left a half hour earlier to come home as I heard it was starting to rain in Santa Clarita and I wanted to get home before the traffic got bad. All in all, he seemed somewhat better today.