maybe... just maybe...

So for the first time in ten days, Reg has maybe improved a bit.

I say maybe because this whole situation has been such a roller coaster over then past couple of days that it's too early to say definitively that Reg is getting better. However... these are the first positive developments since the accident.

Last night, Reg was bleeding a lot, required 2 transfusions plus 100% FiO2 (100% oxygen, and that's as high as you can get) plus vasopressors (meds to help keep his blood pressure up) and had a Greenfield filter put in to prevent any further clots from getting to his lungs. That's a pretty serious situation. Plus they had to paralyze and sedate him again because he was fighting the tubes a bit. Can't say that I blame him, but those tubes are pretty important right now!

Today, they managed to stop the pressors, meaning that his blood pressure is okay; they've weaned him down to 50% oxygen, which means that he's breathing a bit better; his hemoglobin is stable, so he's not bleeding anymore; and they've stopped the paralytics and sedatives again, and he seems to be remaining relaxed.

PLUS we were visiting tonight and... Reg opened his eyes! He'd done that a few times today, but this time he did it when the nurse asked him to! (Bad grammar there. Sue me.) It may have been a coincidence, but it didn't seem that way to me. Plus I was holding his hand and asked him to squeeze, and he did! Again, hard to say for sure what that means... but finally something that could be actual progress.

There's still a long wait ahead of us, to be sure. Anything could happen, because Reg is still very sick and requiring a LOT of support. But it sure is nice of him to throw us a bone once in a while.

P.S. Tried to donate blood today, but got turned down because when we were in Mexico in January we left the malaria-free Cancun resort area to go to Isla Mujeres, which is a shopping district on an island just offshore. But apparently that puts me at risk for malaria, so I'm not eligible to donate for a year. (First of all, Isla Mujeres is really an extension of the resort area of Cancun. Second, I live in WINNIPEG, where there are twelve thousand mosquitoes per square foot for five months of the year, and yet that doesn't pose a problem -- it's Mexico, where I didn't see a single mosquito all week, that's the issue. Ah well. Better safe than sorry, I guess.)