Another Try at the Respirator

Today, Andrew's respirator was turned down the tiniest bit. His doctor is going to try a different and slower approach this time. He is given full support by the machine, but it will allow him to take breaths whenever he wants to himself. Before, the respirator simply took over his breaths whenever he started one. We are told that the longer he is on the respirator, the harder it will be to wean him off of it. He is very dependent on it now and gets panicky if it is turned down too fast. This new weaning approach will at least allow him to excercise his lungs when he is alert or simply feels up to it. Some excercise is better than none, of course.
Today seemed to be one of his better days in a while as he is adjusting decently to the new seizure medicine. He even felt like watching an episode of one of his favorite tv shows, Stargate Atlantis, on the little dvd player we brought up there for him.