Our prayer for a calm day was answered today. Rudy was calm all day, blood pressure stayed right where it was supposed to without any meds and fluid continued to drain. The team has been progressively turning down the ventilator every four hours and overall he’s handling that well. There have been about three episodes where his breathing gets rapid and shallow–usually when we’re talking or up close to the bed. But while he wasn’t able to recover from these over the weekend, today he was able to slow his breathing down. As I write this, he’s on the high side (75 bpm), so I’m quietly praying that number down. The alarm goes off around 80, we’d love to see it in the 30s. Ahhh, just crossed down into the high 60s. Now my own breathing is slowing…
Assuming his progress continues, we are probably looking at another week on the ventilator. If all remains calm tonight, I’ll come to the hospital to wish Rudy a happy three-week birthday and will then make the run up to Santa Barbara for a couple days. The kids have been such troopers (not to mention Oma and Opa), so it will be good to have time with them at home, walk them to school and cheer on Max at his flag football game. It will be good to sleep in my own bed and see a few familiar faces in the office and around town.
The breaths per minute have fallen down to 57 right now…sweet!
Rudy's Beat 
Praise God! I hope all continued well throughout the night.
So glad to hear that things are calm. Thank you Jesus!!! Hope to see you both real soon. Still praying.
Praise God!