Today is our 9th wedding anniversary.  I am back home now and it is hard to be apart on this day but I was able to talk with Tom.  A stunning bouquet of our wedding flowers arrived and as usual I was reduced to tears.  How does he do it?  Today his trache was capped and so while Wens and Ant were visiting they called me as a surprise. 

Its also 111 days since Tom was admitted into Milpark Hospital ICU.   Tom has a freaky relationship with the number 111 so today must mean something in the scheme of things.  He could drop a book and it would be open on page 111, he might look at his watch and it would be 1:11, the alarm bells of the man opposite him in hospital would go off  – heart rate 111, the list goes on.  Freaky and annoying I found it!  I was hoping it to be the day he gets moved to Muelmed Hospital in Pretoria which has a dynamic centre for Spinal Injuries.  I don’t think it will be so today.

When the girls and I left Joburg on Monday night we were all very sad.  Tom had been really low in spirit a few days before and it was crushing to see.  His frontal lobe of his right injured lung collapsed again on Friday and he was taken off the trache mask and put back on the wall cpap to keep the pressure in his lungs constant and hopefully reinflate it.  It worked.  This is a huge relief as the last time this happened he was put back onto the ventilator.  And so up till now this is the longest time he has breathed without the ventilator but is still being assisted by the cpap machine.  Today it seems they have capped his trache which essentially means he is breathing entirely on his own.  His stats (particulary oxygen saturation levels) are now important and will be watched closely. 

I spoke with all of Tom’s doctors while I was there, its very difficult to get any time at all with them so it was a lucky break, all being at Tom’s bedside so he was part of the conversations.  They all indicated he should be ready to move to the next phase of his recovery as the weaning process was progressing forward.  From my experience it is not a wise thing to hold on to news like this as twice before this news has been dashed and the process started all over again.  But I have a warm feeling in my stomach and I need to believe perhaps that “Break” I begged for, might have arrived.  Mike, Nick and Warren are working extremely hard behind the scenes at making this move happen.  The next phase should at least be clear in a few days.

Deep sure breaths everyone, they are paying off.  They are lightening this heavy heavy load.  They really are.