Early Morning News

Turns out that a lot of news developed overnight.  The big thing is that today's surgery has been cancelled, all for good reasons.  Right now Doug's breathing on his own, just using the ventilator for assistance.  The doctors have decided to let that play out, and see if sometime soon he can start breathing entirely on his own.  So, the tracheostomy is called off.  In addition, the long-term feeding tube and blood filter have also both been cancelled.  They're just going to wait and see what he can do on his own.

Also: Around 2am last night Doug opened his eyes briefly.  Since then he's been really gripping his teddy bear and Jen's hand as well as unconsciously shifting his legs slightly every now and then to get comfortable.  Rumor has it that he's probably actually trying to pedal, that's how hardcore of a cyclist Doug is…  He's also coughing a lot due to the ventilator tube, which is a good sign because it means he's responding to the irritation.

So, this is all great news to get in the morning.  We'll see how it plays out during the day.  Despite the surgery being cancelled, Dan and Jen would still like everyone to hold off coming by until late this afternoon.  Finally, I've been told that they have started playing music to Doug to provide some stimuli.  The first song off his iPod was by Nelly McKie, which means nothing to me but probably does to some of you.

Rest, Scans, and Helmets

Hi everyone,

Wednesday was a pretty good day for Doug. The Xenon scan confirmed no changes, which is good. Later in the day he also had an MRI. He did have to be sedated for those, and will be again for the surgery today, which will delay him coming out of the induced coma. However, Doug has been making little movements and slowly moving up the coma scale.

Yesterday Jen & Dan were able to really touch him for the first time, to talk to him and give him kisses. One thing that really pleasantly shocked them was when Jen gave him a kiss at one point and Doug moved his right hand toward her. Another time they were really amused when he started coughing and moved his hand to cover his mouth—something they've been fussing at him to do since he was born. They decided they must have trained him well on at least that one point if he remembered to cover his mouth even in a coma.

So, Doug remains in a deep unconscious state, but he's showing the sort of signs that we want to see. On a slightly more somber but good note: The Markgrafs talked a while with a neurology team yesterday, examining the scans from the past few days. No one really knows how it'll turn out, but the brain seems as ok as it could be after that sort of incident. There's a lot of impact sites all across his head, but it generally looks good. They don't know what's going to happen, but have not ruled out the possibility that Doug will be basically back to normal within the next year or so. That sounds like a very precise and cautious statement, but it is actually good to hear. It's realistic and admits that there's a lot of unknowns, but it says that there's still definitely still reason for hope. There's a real chance that things can play out exactly as we want them and Doug heals completely.

One other thing I want to say is that because of this I'm really noticing all of the people riding around the city without helmets. I've decided on a policy to deflate people's tires when they show up to work without helmets. Please, always wear your helmet, and make sure everyone around you does. We can help you find a cheap, good, and great looking helmet, so there's no excuse. It really is a matter of life or death, and there's no telling what might happen out there on the road.

This morning Doug will be in surgery and we'd like to keep the crowd light. However, if people want to come by late this afternoon, that'd be great. I want to thank everyone for giving Dan & Jen some space to relax yesterday. Drexel Athletics also got them a hotel downtown last night, which gave them a chance to go out and get a real dinner and be normal for just a little while for the first time since the accident.

They asked that I say for them that they:

Want to thank everyone for their love, compassion, and kindness shown to us at this time. Through that, Doug's spirit continues to grow, and has even touched others in the ICU. We're just so grateful.

Today they're going to start playing music for Doug, so we'll see what happens.
Doug Tales will return!

– joe