Latest update from Connie

Good evening Mick,

It's a privilege to be the "informant"...just a crummy situation. HOWEVER, some encouraging news...Pat came around a bit, in between doses of morphine, recognized Karen and reached for her hand and squeezed it. Small thing but very encouraging. Karen is the light and love of his life. Funny thing--Pat looked around to the other side of the bed and saw his mother-in-law and as Karen says "his eyes bugged out as big as saucers!" Karen figures that he finally realized what a serious situation this is. I think it's probably more like he knows m-i-l is coming here for Mother's Day and he's thinking "whoa! that was quite a bit of a snooze Rip Van Winkle!." Although in all honesty Pat would likely be a bit more colorful in his response than that!

Pat is still on the vent and was on 100% O2 with bronchial dilaters and morphine. They did more CT scans, angiogram and EEG. These came back with very impressive news that all the 'catters will want to know--the EEG revealed that not only does Pat have a brain, believe it or not it is functioning. Now I suppose that will be more fuel for him at some point. In fact it may well work its way into the Paw, Reggie, Reggie and Reggie adventures. The angiogram revealed that the aortic arch (where he had the bypass) is intact and not involved--quite a blessing. At this point the doc is not considering surgery but rather continuing to treat his blood pressure and give his aortae time to heal. By keeping the pressure down the blood that is between the lining and the wall of the vessel will have the opportunity to reabsorb which should reduce the pain.

I called Karen when we got home from Wayne's graduation reception tonight and she sounded much better.