Tommy Pierro Full Update Monday, September 7th

Today was another great day! He didn't come off the ventilator yet but he is getting sooo much better. The doctor is hoping tomorrow to really do it. He is at 40% oxygen and the peep is down to 5. He did breathing exercises today where they almost completely take him off and he just sits and breathes on his own. He did it this morning for about 2 hours and then again this afternoon for the same. He did very well! His oxygen levels stayed up everything else was reading well. So they think they've got a great chance tomorrow! Praise God! We also just had a great time together as a family with him. He was wide awake today and was able to communicate with us. We have a clipboard with the letters of the alphabet written across it and he points to letters to spell words he's trying to say. We could see his real self today. He was joking with us and making fun of us and stuff. :-> He would take all this time to spell out sentences just to make us laugh. He asked us if we ate butterscotch rocks pancakes at Ihop and we sadly had to tell him they told us they discontinued it. He playfully hit me cuz those are his favorite! Also another time he wanted me to take off the cold cloth from his forehead and when I asked him if he wanted me to re-wet it and put it back on he made a face like "of course" and then spelled to his parents "is she new?" Because he is ALWAYS hot. At another point he was doing this funny handshake with me that we do sometimes. Just a lot of things like that. We were cracking up most of the day at how lucid and sharp he was and just the things he was saying and doing. It was so nice to have his brother and sister here. They have to leave tomorrow, so it was wonderful they had a full day where he was really awake and knew they were there. He and his brother got to chat about sports and stuff. And we watched tennis and stuff together. It was a good time.

Also, he seems to be remembering things from days past. The nurses all said he wouldn't really remember stuff. But we asked him some questions about things he asked the other day, like when he asked me to call his friend Frank to make sure he knew he was okay. He said he remembered when I told him I did call him today. Also this cute woman from the nearby church came in last Thursday to pray for him when we weren't there. She came in again today and he recognized her and remembered her praying. So, his brain is really working. He's remembering things and is totally sharp in his thought process and things he's saying to us.
And he amazingly seems to not be in any real significant pain. We thought he'd have to be asleep whenever he had the tube down his throat because the thought of it is just so uncomfortable. But it seems to be just annoying not really painful. And his chest was cracked open in the surgery but that seems to just be healing and isn't anything he ever complains about. Whenever we ask him if he's in pain he says no. The only things he needs are mouth swabs because his mouth is very dry, obviously from the tube. He just wants a drink so bad! One of the nurses came in to ask us if we wanted anything to drink. We all declined but he raised his hand kidding cuz he knew he couldn't but really is dying for one. So i can't wait until he gets that out and can get some water and can swallow again! :->
So, things seem to finally be moving along! God is good and has been even when everything seemed to be going wrong. Well, I can't wait to come home and see you all again!!