Resting pretty comfortably in ICU - final post of the night

Dad looks remarkably well considering what he's been through today. Talking with his nurse when he first hit the ICU, he said that Dad was doing fantastic and really, really well on all of their neuro checks. It was pretty hard to see him in so much pain (which is caused by the incision and the pulling back of the scalp to get to the skull/brain), but that finally got under control and when we left around 9:15PM he had been sleeping for about an hour. He was complaining of pain of "20" on a scale of 1-10, which was pretty hard to see him like that; but now that he's sleeping, the morphine is doing it's job and allowing him to be a bit more comfortable.

His color is really good, and he does indeed have a turban. I'll hold off on a picture until he's a bit more out of his morphine-induced sleep, but I promised him I would post a picture of him if he came out of surgery with one. I have kept all my promises, and don't plan on falling short on this one. He will have the turban on to protect the incision site as well as add some pressure (think of it like an ace bandage for your head) through tomorrow, and possibly into Friday morning. I'll take my camera up tomorrow and get a snapshot.

We all head back up tomorrow morning early to catch the neurosurgeons as they round on patients. I think we're all glad that this day is behind us, and that Dad did so well in the surgery. The next few days are going to be rough for Dad as he starts to heal, but the entire medical staff we talked to seemed genuinely very pleased with how everything was going.

I'll probably do a few updates tomorrow (morning/evening). Thanks to all of you checking in, leaving comments, sending emails, and leaving voicemails. We're getting them ALL, it's just hard to call/write everyone back. The blog is the best spot to get the most up to date information, and I'll do what I can to keep you informed. There are no cell phones allowed (or phones) in the ICU, so this is the best way for me to update a bunch of people at once so I don't have to leave the ICU room for too long. :)

Good night, from Rochester.