{Karlton Bontrager}

Yesterday afternoon KS had the tracheostomy (Kiwi for tracheotomy, I guess). Before, he had the ventilator tube down his mouth. It had to be tied onto his head, and they tied it so tightly that he looked really uncomfortable, with his lips sqeezed b/w the ties. Also, he’d yawn and use his tongue to try to push the mouthpiece out. But now he doesn’t have to do that. His face looks more relaxed w/out any tubes in it.

The plan is to move him to another unit, one with slightly less intensive care. It’s a neurosugical unit with a dependency ward. That means that instead of a 1:1 RN to patient unit, he’ll be in a 1:3 setting. He’ll still be heavily monitored, but they don’t want to have him on any kind of ventilator. The major obstacle at the moment is his breathing. He is breathing on his own, but he’s not fully inflating (or is it deflating?) the alveoli with each breath. This morning the RN put him on a different ventilor for 30 mins. to encourage him to fill and empty his lungs completely. He did well at that, and later she’ll put him on it again for 60 mins. and then keep increasing the time according to his success.

She also plans to sit him up in a Lay-Z-Boy recliner today. That will encourage his diaphragm to support his breathing more.

He continues to be active in the bed. The RN reported that his sheets were in good order when she arrived at 7:00a, but by 7:20 when we arrived, they were pulled out again. He’s taken to using his right hand to grab the railing on the left side and pull himself over on the left. In fact, Mom started massaging his back, and he did just that to give her more space to work with. He also uses his fingers to play with us, catching our fingers in his or tapping us on the hand. Such activities are alternated with periods of sleep.

Maree, the RN today, said that he tried to move his left leg a bit last night. Wow!

His gang of friends stopped by again last evening. They are such really nice people with lots of good energy. They really keep us going.

When we got back to the hotel room last night, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Bunac, the group that sponsored Karlton’s stay in NZ. Another article appeared in yesterday’s newspaper. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring it with us to the University to send it along to you. They’ve got all the facts right, now, so we feel less urgency to respond to the media’s request for interviews.

We sneaked over to the University while the crew was X-raying KS. They should be done by now, so we’ll head back. Thanks again for being so wonderful.