18 Oct

Even more progress yesterday - they took the respirator down to zero - he is breathing entirely on his own with no mechanical assistance other than the oxygen mixture is 40%, whereas the air we breathe is 20%. The next step is to remove the ventilator pipe and leave a T piece in place for emergencies, while they leave him with just an oxygen mask on. Heartrate still over 100 and I've explained to Colin that he must relax to bring it down. He does tend to get very excitable. It is for him a very difficult time as there is apparently still a lot of confusion and an automatic response from him is aggression - one nurse asked me whether he had a "fight or flight" type of personality - as this comes out during this stage - he very definetely has the former.
I met the orthopaedic surgeon yesterday - he came down during visiting hours to show us the most recent x rays and was very pleased with the bone formation, although indicated that there may be too much in the shoulder. From the beginning he indicated that another procedure would have to be performed on the shoulder if Colin wanted full function back but that he could make a decision on that in good time. The pelvis fractures are healing well and although the femur still has a way to go there has been good progress. He indicated that he would like to see Colin go to a specialised rehabilitation centre like the Aurora clinic in PE for a while, as he is going to need intensive physio and they specialise in that sort of thing. I have been there for a visit before and know that they are leaders in their field so we will investigate that.