Out of ICU and more (a massive post).

A lot has happened in the last week. To recap:

Quintin is still breathing on his own, with the trach collar providing warm, moist air.

On Saturday (his birthday) it was determined he was stable and improved enough to move out of the ICU and into the Trauma Care Unit (TRACU). The Northwest Film Center had sent Q an enormous bunch of balloons, and the whole family was there for the move, so we made quite the little parade from ICU to TRACU – all of us following two nurses wheeling Q in his bed, balloons bumping along the ceiling all the way to his new room.

On Thursday, a team of Physical Therapists in TRACU got Quintin transferred temporarily from his bed into a “chair” to help his lungs and to give his body a general change of position. I say “chair” because it’s really a throne-like version of the bed – completely padded and structured for support. His system handled the activity and new position well, and it sounds like they’ll be increasing the time he spends in the chair each day.

Because Quintin is doing well, it is likely he’ll be discharged from the hospital entirely sometime next week. The next step will be to an acute care facility (much like TRACU, but outside of the hospital). This is both exciting and scary for his family and me. When he made the move to TRACU, we’d seen real progress happening – most obviously that he no longer needed the ventilator. His doctors and nurses have been slowly checking off the criteria required to discharge him entirely, but the milestones aren’t things we can see. At the first discharge meeting Q’s parents and I had with the doctors and social workers this week, they explained what their skilled eyes were looking for: for example, it’s been over two weeks since his last surgery, and they don’t anticipate him needing another one. His heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs are trending in the right range. These aren’t obvious steps to those of us observing the process. We’d spent 40 days in the ICU and I think we were ready for another long stay in TRACU. Personally, I’d imagined that he would need to be awake before leaving the hospital, but clearly that’s not the case. So we’re working on readying ourselves for the step that Quintin’s already prepared for. Honestly, remember who we’re talking about here - we shouldn’t be at all surprised that he’s way out in front of us on this!

It’s wonderful that Quintin is making this progress, and enormous credit is due to the amazing team in the ICU. We’re all enormously grateful to everyone there. We have great help in TRACU, but miss our ICU friends very much.

P.S. Although Quintin is out of the ICU, please understand that visitors are still limited to family only and we will let you know when that changes.