Sunday morning

The quick report this morning is that Dad had a good night sleep. He sure does have to stay on top of the pain meds to remain in the earth's gravitational pull. In my judgement, it is far more important to be liberal on the pain meds right now, even if it makes it harder to come off them later. The logic is that the more pain dad is in right now, the harder it is for him to expand his chest to breath and to expel fluid through coughing. Without deep breathing and healthy coughing he will be at greater risk for pneumonia. People die from pneumonia.

The x-ray this morning showed no fluid and very little air in the chest cavity, but this may be owing to the fact that the vacuum has been turned back on. So, we are repeating the experiment of a few days ago. They have turned off the vacuum and will see how much fluid or air returns to the chest cavity in its absence. If less than 100-150 ml of fluid comes out over the next 24 hours, the physicians assistant says we can "talk about taking it out". Either he is being deferential to the physicians decision or just being non-committal.

Getting the tube out will be a giant leap for Alan-kind - big reduction in pain.

Dad is in good spirits.