My sister Tammi reports visiting our Dad last night in hospital:
Dad was sedated. Apparently he chews at his breathing tube and tries to pull it out when he is conscious, and chewing through it or pulling it out would be really bad. This way at least he gets to rest through the worst discomfort of the healing of his incision, so maybe the process will seem shorter to him. They do wake him every four hours to have him move his arms and legs and turn a bit; this and a blood thinner are to prevent blood clots, which could in turn cause a stroke. The risk of the blood thinner is that the internal surgery site would not clot properly, and the splenic artery would start bleeding. However, he has a little drain in his side to remove fluid from the abdominal cavity, and from that they can see that the internal site is not bleeding. The incision is looking good, too, we are told.
All his standard vitals--blood pressure, blood oxygen, blood sugar, heart rate, respiration rate, hemoglobin level--are good and are stable, and they are watching him very conscientiously. I believe that they will keep him sedated as long as he needs the breathing tube, and he will be on the tube as long as he has excess fluid in his lungs. We hope that fluid will clear up with improved kidney function, which we hope will come about soon.
Dr. Ingrassia, the pulmonologist, has a chest X-ray taken every morning to assess the fluid and therefore when he can come off the breathing tube. He does breathe on his own--the tube is just a safety precaution--but they don't want to take the tube out until his lungs have shed that excess fluid (picked up when they were giving him fluids during surgery), since they don't want to have to put the tube back in. Good news about the fluid in the lungs is that it has no organisms in it, which means the pneumonia is gone. His antibiotic IV drip has accordingly been stopped. The insulin drip has stopped, too, since his blood sugar is good now.
Dr. Ingrassia and Dr. Prabahakar will look in on him on the morning, and I have asked the hospital to have them call us then so that we know immediately what they are planning to do tomorrow about the tube and the sedation--leave them as is or not. I just now called the ICU and talked to the nurse there, who assured me that Dad is "still resting peacefully, as he has been all day."
And today the hotel closes. I have to go to my work a bit later than usual and will be back around 1.30 pm. The big cleaning starts tomorrow 
