Day 11--Barbara

Robin had his chest washed out again this morning at 9:00 am. When I arrived at 11:00 they were just finishing up and I had to wait for 30 minutes. As I went into the waiting room, I was asked to wait to speak to the doctor before seeing him. As usual there is mixed news. They are still taking off fluids--had slowed down, but are taking more now. They are reducing some drugs and changing others--too many to keep in my head. They have him paralyzed due to the coughing that occurred yesterday--it was a bad thing as it messed with the heart rhythm. The lungs still look bad in the x-ray due to the infection, but the doctor says that the x-ray is not always a reliable determiner of whether they are in fact getting better. On the bright side, the doctor thought that he may have seen some movement on the right side of the heart during the wash out. They have changed to predigested food in an effort to get more nutrition into him. The doctor also said that it may be another week before he is able to close up Robin's chest. That's the good news...

On the other side...

In the next day or so they will do an EEG on Robin to make sure that there is still brain function--the neurologist said that the coughing was an indication that the brain was still functioning at autonomic levels--the EEG will give them some idea whether it is also still functioning at higher levels--the stuff makes Robin the funny guy that he is! The doctor said that he has no indications to think that Robin is not "still in the building", but since he has been unable to bring him to consciousness since the operation and due to the tremendous efforts being expended to keep him alive, we need to be sure that the efforts are not in vain.

Today is the first day that the doctor told me exactly about the condition of Robin's heart. The right side was not functioning at all when he put in the VAD and if function cannot be restored, he will need a heart transplant. The doctor has already alerted Stanford that this may be a possibility. However, a transplant is not possible if there is any sign of infection, so now is a real good time for more prayers both for the EEG and the infection.

This is possibly the single most difficult thing I have ever had to live through--It is so hard to see my very best friend in such a bad state. I am holding it together by the thinnest of threads. I feel the love from all of you reading this, and hope to have better news soon.