So the doctors tried to do the EEG test which measures brain activity without success. In fact, it was a total failure as Yunie was moving about and this didn't help lend itself to a successful test. BUT...some progress was made today.
John, Steve's good friend, was at the hospital today. He was actually there when they took the medication down and purposefully made Yunie awaken. Apparently within a few minutes of lowering one of the drugs, Yunie gets very restless as he gets more alert and often times, as mentioned before, he attempts to take the breathing tube out. Janet told me a doctor said, "imagine you had a straw stuck down your throat. Imagine how uncomfortable that would be". Now imagine the straw is the size of a toilet roll cardboard tube. Okay, maybe that's a pinch bigger than this ventilator but it's pretty big and I think it would make anyone very uncomfortable.
The sole purpose the tube is there is to assist in keeping Yunie's air passages clear. He is not strong enough to produce a good cough or clear his throat if necessary. Once the doctors can determine that he's alert enough and can run some tests to see if he's responsive, they may be able to remove the breathing tube soon but they want to make sure he'll be okay without it. The last thing they want to do is remove it and then have to put it back in.
So, when John was there during the time Yunie's medications were lowered a miraculous thing happened. Yunie opened his eyes. He did not make direct eye contact with anyone but Dave, the nurse, and John witnessed this. John asked Yunie to squeeze his hand and he responded. The doctors aren't certain if that was just a reflex or if he really could follow the command. Regardless a big win.
Janet arrived at the hospital around 2 pm. She heard the news and was provided a glimmer of hope after 4 long days of no response whatsoever. Her sister, Sandra, flew back from her vacation as of Saturday night and was helping Daniel and Sung out at the deli today so Janet was by herself for the most part. After the deli closed, Janet was joined by her mom and sister. Around 5 pm the nurses lowered the medication again and Yunie opened his eyes. Janet tried to ask him if he could hear her. He did not respond. Sung then spoke to him in Korean and he squeezed her hand. The respiratory therapist was there and was encouraged. It's hard to tell how much is "coincidence" at this point vs his brain actually processing. Only time will tell. Another positive sign was when Janet played a video of Taylor singing on her phone and Yunie's eyes got very big. Janet said that her mom was very encouraged as was the nurse, therapist, etc. They said a lot of folks in the ICU are in vegetative states. A sad thing indeed. Doctors don't yet know the full extent of the damage but they feel that (hopefully) the worst has passed. Yunie is still in a very critical state for the next few weeks but today's progress was the most we've seen since he was admitted (last Thursday).
Tomorrow or the next day they hope to be able to assess whether or not he can be moved out of ICU but most likely he will remain there for a few more days. He will be considered "stable" when he is off the blood pressure medication. They hope to progress eventually to the point where they can do a "swallow" test.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the support.
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