January 12th, 2011 by Conor

It’s 1:57 AM. Today has been the smoothest day thus far. Danny’s ICP has been at an all time low (a good thing) until about an hour ago and it started to fluctuate. The numbers go up, the numbers go down. After about ten minutes of trying to figure it out, repositioning Danny and watching the number do it’s thing, Danny is finally comfortable…as comfortable as you can be in his state. Today a lady walked in that I’ve seen a couple of times. She likes to check in on his progress. Danny is a celebrity here. She asked me how he was doing and I replied, “He hasn’t had any paralytics since four o’clock. His ICP is stable. He shudders at times, but it hasn’t effected the pressure. They’ve increased his morphine and gave him a little something to get his gut going. Today has been mellow.” She gave me a surprised look and said, “you should be a nurse someday.” When you spend this much time in the ICU with Danny, you begin to feel like a nurse.

-Michelle