We are officially past five weeks today. Yesterday's MRI (approximately 1.5 weeks after last PLEX treatment) showed stability from the last MRI (8/12). With this stability, the neurologists believe that the autoimmune process has successfully been halted but they will continue to monitor for any further signs of worsening and have continued his planned steroid taper to help further suppress his immune system. 

This week, care seemed to focus on getting him off of the ventilator and moving him out of the ICU. He was successful weaning off the ventilator, and he is currently breathing on his own. They use a "trach collar" to help moisten the air that he breaths in through his tracheostomy but other than that the level of oxygen is the same amount as we breathe normally. As far as moving him out of the ICU, transfer orders are placed, and as I write this, we wait for a clean bed on the neuro-telemetry unit at Swedish Cherry Hill. He's making big moves and showing some real progress towards his recovery. It is still difficult for me at times to see him not alert/"wakeful," but I really do believe that he is able to hear us and intake a lot of sensory information. I can see this especially when he is getting really tired with using a lot more of his core/neck muscles in the chair because his heart rate goes up, blood pressure goes up, and he starts breathing faster. As soon as he gets back into bed and settled, his heart rate goes down, blood pressure goes down, and his breathing slows to normal. All that to say that he is continually making small, but meaningful, progress every day. Anyone that knows Christohper really understands how bad he wants to get back to pushing our buttons and how hard he will fight to get there. I read all your text messages to him and remind him constantly that we all believe in him. There are the occasional eye rolls, mainly unintentional of course...or maybe not. We'll have to ask him when he's ready.  

Along with the improvements came some very hard discussions regarding his future care and what that would look like. Initially, there were talks of him going to a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) or possibly even home health in our own home. With the improvements that he showed us all this week (off ventilator and more spontaneous movement) the rehabilitation doctor entertained the idea of a disorders of consciousness (DoC) rehabilitation program. Our understanding of it is that it is a very neuro-intensive rehabilitation program for those that are on a spectrum of consciousness--from a vegetative state to minimally conscious. They work with patients to help stimulate them in ways that are beneficial to brain injury recovery. If everything goes well, he will be drafted by The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) DoC Rehabilitation program at Memorial Herman in Houston, Texas. We are awaiting insurance authorization and will know more in the next week. He could potentially be transferring there as soon as two weeks so get your visits and eyerolls in. If you'd like to coordinate a visit, please feel free to reach out to me: (206) 228-0596. I haven't been very great at responding in a timely manner so call if text isn't working. Visitors are welcome but my only request is that no pictures of him/with him in this stage of recovery be posted on the internets (facebook, instagram, etc.). 

I know I haven't been the best at sending out the individual thank yous but please know that your support and generosity have not been overlooked. We appreciate all of you so much and cannot thank you enough.