SLOW PROGRESS BEGINS

Ron sat up on the side of the bed last night for 15 minutes. This is the first time since he coded back on 12/30/07. He was very weak...but he did well. This morning we got him up first thing. He said it was easier today than yesterday to sit up. I was pleased to hear him say this. He did a few leg lifts while he sat on the edge of the bed and some arm lifts with my help. We are hoping to get him some exercise pedals that he can use while he is sitting to help increase his leg strength and also get some cardio exercise as well. He is almost done with his dialysis this morning...he says he is ready for lunch. Another sign of good things to come. We will try to sit him up again throughout the day....the more repetitions the better. He is down to one IV drip...they removed most of them yesterday and transitioned him back to oral medication. He will come off the duboutamin today. He is still being paced ...they tried to see what he heart would do without it today...but it was still at a slow rate of 56 beats per minute. They tell me it can takes weeks before the amiodorone drug will come out of his system..this was the medication they were using on him when they needed to slow his heart rate previously. So we just need to give it time to get this all out of his system...and hopefully, his heart will return to a normal heart rate. The good thing is though.....he is in norma sinus rythm. Praise God for that!