So its been four weeks now, and things go from good to bad to good to bad depending on who you talk to. He's not on any sedatives, and we're still waiting for him to wake up. His temperature is still hovering around 100F, but thats not nearly as bad as it was last week. They've tested for ever conceivable source of the fever, and can find nothing that might cause it. The thought is that its the result of his brain's inability to regulate the body's core temperature. Hopefully thats temporary.

A new wrinkle that has been introduced recently is the issue of his blood pressure. He's been needing medication to keep the blood pressure elevated. Without it, it drops to dangerously low levels. He can't be taken out of ICU and off of a ventilator until his blood pressure stabilizes on its own.

The good news, we're told, is that his pupils are responding, he has a healthy gag reflex, and his brain stem shows no damage. The CT scan of his brain shows that stroke damage looks like it is centered around the language area.

The bad news is that while one doctor says the CT looks good, the other says he's not progressing in other areas nearly as well as they'd like to see. Whats frustrating is that they are both speaking the truth, they're just coming from different areas of expertise. So basically we're plugging along, waiting for things to break one way or the other, and keeping the faith.


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