Paul breathing on his own

(pasted from CaringBridge)
FRIDAY, JULY 04, 2008 03:27 PM, PDT
I am sitting in Paul's room right now. It's fairly quiet. His ICP has been low all day and his temperature is staying down. He periodically stirs and moves his arms and legs around. He also moves his head from side-to-side. These are all good signs.
Another milestone event occurred earlier today. The respiration nurse came in to check how well he could breathe on his own. He was off the breathing tube for about 30 minutes and was maintaining the same respiratory rates as he had been with the breathing tube. This means he is able to breathe on his own. However, they are leaving the breathing tube in for now so that he doesn't have spend energy breathing, and can direct that energy to healing the rest of his body.
I'm not sure if I already noted this, but he has also had his chest tube removed. He had the tube in to help make sure that the lung that had collapsed at the scene of the accident stayed inflated. It was determined that he didn't need the tube any more and it has been removed.
For the next few days, they will primarily be monitoring how his brain is healing. If he remains stable, he will have surgery on Tuesday to stabilize the broken bones in is face. It is unclear whether he will get his breathing tube out before then, since they will most likely need to put one in again after the surgery.
The girls are out enjoying the 4th with our neighbors, the Parker/Crepeau family. They are going to see the Kirkland parade, then hang out at the beach and see the fireworks.
Thanks to everyone who visited, and especially the ESR couple that brought the vegan pie for Rachel (I apologize for not remembering your name!). Also, a special thanks to Matt, Hal and Ben for staying the night and keeping me updated on the events of the night.
I hope everyone is out enjoying the fireworks. Hopefully, there will not be any here in the hospital tonight ;-)
--Kris.