Friday, April 9, 2010

open up your eyes

The plan is to extubate (remove the breathing tube) today. The doctors decided to shut off Tom's sedation aggressively to get him to wake up so at this point he is only receiving Fentanyl (a pain med). But, there is still Versed, Propofol, and Precedex in his system so he just needs to metabolize that out of his system and hopefully open his beautiful eyes today. Once he is more awake they will extubate him. At this point he is breathing on his own although his respiratory rate is slow 6-10. The ventilator will provide respiratory support if he needs it before he wakes up. The docs think he is having a tough time waking up because his kidney function still is not great so he is not excreting the meds as quickly as someone else would. Dr. Potter changed his wound dressing today and said his wound continues to look very healthy. Tom is on contact precautions now due to the bacteria that grew from his sputum culture so we get to wear gloves and pretty yellow gowns while visiting ;-0.

4 comments:

  1. Come on Tom, you can do it!!!!

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  2. We're all praying for him at Assumption!

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  3. At a time like this all i can do is think about all the peoples lives I know that are better because they were lucky and blessed enough to get to know, and learn from Tom. Even a couple years after I graduated I was surrounded by people at work near NYC who had Tom as a prof. or boss at Assumption...one of my roomates in Fairfield was 7 or so years older than me and he had Tom for TV production at AC. All these young men and women doing well in this difficult time, all because Tom Burke cares enough about us, and he does, he really cares about us, not just as students, but as people... if you give Tom a drop of effort, he gives you an ocean. There are so many memories, I'll never forget walking into the media center the summer after I graduated and telling Tom I was about to make a push for a job in the Worcester TV market, by the end of the day I had a call from a national television company. Times when I felt I was going to give up and that everyone at the school had given up on me as a student, Tom made me see my potential, it was tough love, usually a "COME HERE!" we would walk outside and then Id get "what did I hear about you? What the f#@% are you doin?!" he has no idea, if it wasnt for those moments of him caring enough to yell at me, I never would have made it... Thats just who Tom is...he's a diamond in the rough. Everyone who is now out here in the world, that has heard about Tom feels like a member of our family is in need, and we are so worried and concerned about our dear friend. All my love to you and the girls... I know he is surrounded by angels right now, they look after their own.

    ~Aaron

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  4. Aaron..I have always known what an amazing teacher Tom has been and how much an impression he makes on the young adults he works with. He is an amazing man in so many ways to try to quantify it is impossible. I appreciate your love and respect for him. You all know he is a fighter and doesn't put up with any sh*t...there is no doubt in my mind he will pull through this. He is too strong to be down too long. Thanks for all your thoughts.

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