Mr. Tough Guy

March of Dimes Poster Child

                                                                     Rob - 1990

Rob's doing great on dialysis and was holding his stats well this morning.  They've decided to switch him from the special, 2-day dialysis method to the traditional 2-3 hour method and will be doing that this afternoon.  It's supposedly more effective and will be better for him since they think he can tolerate it.  Another big win today - his platelets are up to 135,000!  His hemoglobin is still low but they're holding off with a transfusion and waiting for him to start replenishing his blood himself.

He's been paralyzed most of the weekend because he was having a rough time breathing over the ventilator, but they're going to be letting off the paralytic today because they would like more of his bodily functions to resume.  From only the few days I've been here I already feel like there's a lot of back and forth - turn off the paralytic, turn it on...move him to a different bed, move him back...turn his oxygen down then turn it back up...etc.  We know they just want to see what his body can do to facilitate the speediest recovery possible. 

I'm hoping to give you another good report this evening from my baby brother, the tough guy.  :)


**Editor's Note - I incorrectly said that UPS Brandon visited with Chris and brought the Hall's gift card, not UPS Braden.  I'm sorry to get your name wrong, Braden!  I was obviously confused and I'm sure you'll cut me some slack.  ;)