Update: Day 25

Neal has made astonishing progress since I saw him two weeks ago.
Today he is clearly able to mouth words with many fricatives. Today
he was on a four-hour ventilator test, off the ventilator. His
breathing off the ventilator today is better than fully assisted two
weeks ago. The respiration tech came by to monitor the test and
discussed the possibility of removing the ventilator next week and
installing a voice box. It depends on his strength at the end of
these tests. The efforts to remove him from the ventilator last week
were premature. Neal quoted Clint Eastwood: "A man's got to know his
limitations." There is a plan next week to create a direct line into
his stomach and remove the feeding tube. When that is done he'll be
able to drink things. The occupational therapist came and did
range-of-motion exercises and commented on the huge improvement since
the last evaluation. Neal asked for his foam hand grenade on his desk
to exercise with. The head nurse on the floor came by and discussed
near-term plans. When Neal is off the ventilator he's already been
approved to be moved to the occupational therapy ICU, one floor up
from his current room. He's real pleased with his own progress, and
the hospital's plans.

-Lee