Little Dude and I went down to the hospital yesterday to see Mikey. This is the first time in a week that I'd been able to go and I was anxious to see him since it had been so long.

Mrs. Mikey was running back and forth between hospitals (one of her dearest friends has been hospitalized - at a different facility - with a serious illness) and during a phone call, I let her know we were on our way.

At the hospital, Mikey was undergoing a "procedure". That's code for deep suctioning for secretions by the respiratory therapist/doc to keep the fluid from overwhelming our favorite guy. Since he was otherwise occupied, Little Dude and I headed down to the waiting room. Eventually, the Smashes and Gracie arrived. We sat and talked and began a round of 20 Questions. It's amazing what you'll find to keep busy when you have to be patient. No pun intended.

Finally, Mrs. Mikey and their daughter arrived. She led Gracie and me down the hall and into ICU to see Mikey while the kids occupied themselves under the watchful eye of the Smashes.

Bedside, I held his hand and started talking to him, his heart rate went up, and the monitors started to go off. I had to tease him! I told him I knew he was happy to see me but that he needed to contain his excitement since he's a married man and his wife was standing right there. Everyone laughed and his heart rate went back to normal. He's in there. Definitely. Mikey's fighting hard and I have no doubt that he's going to pull through this.

I also mentioned that I had considered kidnapping Debra Messing (Will and Grace) and bringing her in to see him, to talk him into recovering. However, I had nixed that plan since I didn't think her family nor the police would be real thrilled with the idea. I have no idea what Mikey thinks of her, but she was at the zoo today while Little Dude and I were there. We were all hanging with the pandas.

Mikey's still in a coma, but he has moments of great responsiveness. The medical team was finally able to perform the angiogram. There is no evidence of an aneurysm nor of any abnormal blood vessel anatomy.

He's receiving feedings through a nasojejunal tube, which is placed down the nose, passes through the stomach, and sits in the upper part of the intestines - the jejunum. This prevents the stomach from filling with contents that could potentially be aspirated into the lungs. Naturally, no one wants that to happen. The fact that the doctors have chosen a minimally invasive method for feeds is good. No surgery is required for the tube placement. And better still, the fact that Mikey's being given any sort of feedings at all is FANTASTIC!

The CT and other tests show that the damage from the stroke was confined to a section of the right frontal lobe. Personality should not be drastically altered. He may experience some decreased ability to mentally focus, but that's a better outcome than what might have been. Ultimately, the only real way to determine the extent of the damage will come once Mikey has regained consciousness.

In addition to the feedings, Mikey is moderately jaundiced. Shock, medications, feeds, and many other factors play a role in how the body functions, especially the liver. Apparently, the bilirubin levels have been steadily decreasing, which is more good news. Bilirubin is a product of hemoglobin breakdown. Normally, our liver will help with processing the old blood cells and they will passed from our system via urine and stool. When the amount of heme and globin becomes greater than the amount the liver and gall bladder can process, bilirubin begins to accumulate in the blood stream and thus, the yellowing of skin and sclera (the whites of the eyes). Mikey was yellow, but not a horrible yellow. I've worked with so many icteric patients that I can pretty much gauge what the lab results will be just by looking at them. Mikey has a fight on his hands, but he's on his way.

He's also very edematous (swollen). The nurse said they took off quite a bit of fluid during dialysis yesterday and that's to be expected. 4 kg is significant. It's important to remove the excess fluid to improve blood pressure as well as to keep the lungs from becoming congested.

The ICP remained under 10 the whole time I was there. Yay! The blood pressure was good. Yay! And, Mikey was in a deep "sleep". Friday had been a particularly arduous day for him - the angiogram was done, a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter as opposed to a standard IV) was placed, and he has those extra special suctionings throughout the day. That's a lot stress on the body. He deserved to sleep.

Next week I'll be spending a little more time down at the hospital since his wife has to go back to work (short days for now) and nobody wants him to be alone all the time.

I'll be taking in comments to read to him. I'm taking a new biography that I can read to him as I keep him company. And, we've all teased him that we're going to bring in music that will force him awake, if only to complain.

There's still a long, hard road ahead of Mikey and his family, but we're all confident that current test results are indicating that things are going to be okay.

Don't forget to donate, even if it's only a dollar or two. Every bit helps.

And, keep praying.