Hello all-
It’s 8:20am on Friday morning. I’m calling out for prayer to all of you. Richard’s vitals are excellent and the goal today is to get him off the respirator. At this point, they’ve taken him off the sedative. However, as he’s been on it for 3 days and there’s such a high volume in his body that he’s pretty knocked out. He responds to his name immediately by opening his eyes. He’s winked one eye at me several times this morning, which I’m pretty sure is his way of flirting even under heavy sedation [ He is Cuban through and through
😉 ]
PRAYER NEED: If we’re going to make today’s goal of taking him off the respirator, Richard needs to be fully awake on his own; breathing on his own without help of the machine. So, we need to pray that the sedative wears off rapidly and that he’s able to respond as needed.
TO KEEP IN MIND: As he comes out of the sedative, it’s expected that he’ll begin to fight the fact that there’s a tube in his throat. The doctors have said that it’ll be necessary to reassure him that he has a tube in his throat, where he is, and what exactly is happening.
They want to keep him calm so that he doesn’t attempt to pull at anything (mainly the breathing tube) or fight against the doctors.
Also, PLEASE PRAY that the trauma of removing the tube is little to none. We keep hearing that the removal will be uncomfortable/painful and that his throat will, no doubt, be irritated. Considering all the other pain/discomfort that we’re anticipating for normal recovery from the esophagenctomy, we’re praying that the reprocussions of the breathing tube are miniscule.
ONWARD AND UPWARD!! God has surely given me, Richard’s mother, Duke and Anne and immense amount of peace at this time. Though it’s been hard to see him sedated, we know that the healing has begun and that this is just part of the recovery process. I can’t wait until Richard is at least able to talk to us and let us know what he’s feeling/thinking.
On a high note, I’m attaching a picture that we took in Pre-Op, about an hour before he went into surgery. The cap looked like a beret and he was being silly… what’s new!?! I laugh everytime I look at it and can’t wait until he’s back joking in like manner.
Thanks again for you prayers, visits, offers to assist in meals, rides for Richard’s mom to and from the hospital and so much more!!
Looking forward to reporting on his post respirator condition….
—
Maria Abeyta
