Masters Family (Sean) Still Recovering

This is the latest report from Debra. The good news is Sean is making progress. The not so good news is the recovery is going to take longer than anticipated and the Masters family will have to scramble once again to come up with the resources to be there for Sean's recovery. But, they are staying in good spirits and Sean is making "baby steps" (not literally yet).


From Debra
He is unable to talk above a hoarse whisper, unable to swallow water or food. His muscles are totally weak from 2 days of being basically frozen and the same 2 days of paralytic drugs so he wouldn't shiver, and 4 days of narcotics. Dr. Burg says that for about 4 days his muscles were in a state of "lack of tone, like a fetus" for all this time and that he has to relearn to use them all. including eye muscles (hence, his seeing double). He was up in a chair today for 5 minutes. It exhausted him. He slept 4 hours afterward.
We are on his 6th unit of blood, and they did a sonogram looking for pooling blood somewhere. They didn't find any. Tomorrow if his hemoglobin levels are again low, they will do another CT angiogram. He will also, definitely, have an MRI to see if there is any brain damage from the 5 minutes he was without oxygen to the brain.
Because of all the weakness, he will probably be in the hospital another 2 weeks relearning stuff and regaining control of his muscles. And then another 3 weeks of outpatient therapy once he gets home. Which put us in panic mode. We had this planned down to the week with our leave and such and this totally blew us out of the water. We came home in a somber mood tonight.
So the good news is he's off the breathing machine, he has the drainage tubes out and the pacemaker wires. He has 2 of his arm IVs out but the central line is still in his neck (for feeding and blood and meds). He is about 97% oxygenated most of the time. His blood pressure is good. He's moving around in the bed. So we have made progress and he will continue to make progress...just not by August 18th when I have to go back to work, or by August 22nd by the time Jon has to go back to work.
We appreciate all strengthening and healing thoughts and prayers on his behalf.
Update- morning of August 6th
the catheter is out and he is able to use the restroom (in bed) on his own. we have given him a list of what he has to accomplish to be allowed to go home which are:

• swallowing water


• eating food


• sitting unassisted


• standing unassisted


• walking


he wanted to get out of bed the instant we gave him the list, but we didn't let him. it's a good attitude though and his voice, also, seems to be coming back steadily. still a little raspy/husky but we can hear him now whereas before we'd have to put our ear to his mouth. so this is excellent. he is also using better, more complex, vocabulary. 

he also saw photos of himself early on in the process and was stunned at how he looked. at one photo he said he looked dead in the photo. so he is now aware of the progress he has made, which encourages him, because he was so discouraged when they said he couldn't go home for 2 weeks.