He's still in a coma, though making little signs of recovery from time to time. The drains that had been placed in his head to relieve pressure on his brain are out, which is a great step, and the CT scans show that his intracranial pressure has been stable and normal since then. He's still on a respirator, which is why he's still in the ICU. Because he doesn't have a reliable cough reflex he has to have regular broncoscopies (sp?) to clean his lungs out. He's had an on-and-off fever as his body fights minor infections - they know he's dealing with staph but that's something they can monitor and treat with antibiotics. The worry with infection is the possibility of pneumonia - as long as he's on the respirator there's a higher chance of infection, but they need to see steady coughing and breathing to get him off the respirator. A bit of a catch-22. He's shown a few cough responses, so we're hoping he's progressing that way. The infection risk is the main reason why we can't invite people in to see him. He moves his legs and feet quite a bit; arms, shoulders and head sometimes too. He opens his eyes sometimes and seems to track faces occasionally, but I really don't know how much of that is reflex and how much is him actually looking at us.
The doctors have said that now we all have to have patience because it's a very slow healing process. Weeks and months, they say.
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