Joey keeps getting better. We visited him this afternoon. They were able to remove his respirator and so he’s breathing completely on his own! A day ahead of schedule! He was wearing a supplemental oxygen mask because he’s still very weak. His throat is painfully dry, so he still can’t really talk, but he was grunting a little. Grunting is a good sign. Tomorrow they will try giving him some real food, which will be the first he’s had in about 10 days. The docs have him doing some leg stretching exercises while lying in bed. He still has a fever, but everything else is much improved.

We chatted with him for awhile and I told him a little about svenny‘s party last night, and I told him I drank a few screwdrivers for him. Then he grimaced and pointed to his spellchart (it’s sort of like a Ouija board with numbers, the alpahabet and other common phrases so that people who can’t talk can still communicate). We gave him the chart and then he spelled out “NO MORE DRINKING.” Cripe! I suppose what that means is that they’ve told him he won’t be able to drink anymore, because of the liver damage he’s sustained. No more smoking either. Or brownies. So i joked with him that we’d buy him a juice extractor when he gets home. V8 from now on.

He seemed frustrated by not being able to speak. But of course. I remember from my own time as a patient that being in the hospital is basically, well, very boring. Time passes and there’s nothing to do, you can’t look outside, and you just lie there. People visiting you, and the nurses giving you shots or a fresh drip are usually the most exciting parts of your day. Andy asked him if it helped him to have us visiting him and he nodded excitedly. I told him we’d be back tomorrow evening. And he reached out for our hands and held them for awhile as we said goodbye.