Two steps forward and one step back

The day started out pretty well. Neal was told to put two fingers up and he did. He was responding to us pretty well. We saw the doctors during rounds and all tests are coming back negative. We are still waiting on a couple of neurological tests, however they are not anticipating any new results. At 10am, they decided to turn the ventilator off, although not yet pull the tube out and see how he was. He did well, so at 1pm, the ventilator was removed. Mom, Dave, Ed and I were all there for the visiting hour and he seemed pretty good. He was nodding his head, looking around, trying to talk and responding to commands . He even gave a thumbs up when he heard the Indians won the series. It did appear that he was lacking a short term memory. He was trying to reach to his face, which was of concern since he has a feeding tube and a tube to drain his stomach. Eventually we restrained him again. By the time we left, his oxygen was a little lower, but still ok and his blood pressure was going up. He even nodded yes when I asked if he felt short of breathe. Around 3:30, we received a call that they were putting him back on the ventilator. It turns out he has too much dried blood and mucus in the back of his throat that he cannot cough up and they cannot suction out. They used a scope and were surprised by the amount of stuff back there. He was sedated again and given pain medicine. He is pretty exhausted and slept most of our visits. He opened his eyes a couple of times, but was not doing it on command. The sedation will take a while to wear off.

As I reread this, especially the first two sentences I ask myself what the heck happened. He was the best he has been in a year and now this. Is there some sort of Nintendo wii virus going around? I thought we had seen it all, but unfortunately we did not. When Neal wakes up and reads my notes, he will probably not even believe it. Ryan and Leslie have been going to the 9pm visiting hour as I need some rest and I appreciate that. I appreciate all of the kind notes and help I have received. I was just telling my mom how lucky myself and Neal are to have great friends and family. I know if I needed something I have a long list of people to call and I appreciate those that I have already called upon.