Update: 7:00am Saturday 9/29/2012

David slept well through the night other than having to use the suction on him many times. There is a suction tube bedside that we use when liquids build up in his mouth. He has told me that it feels like he is choking. The nurse told me that is common after the removal of the tubes from his mouth and throat. The choking feeling should get better as time goes on, and honestly, by 6:00am, I was having to do it less frequently. He was in great spirits late last night. He's slept most of the night so I haven't gotten to visit with him much. That's a good thing, but me and him like to talk, and it's hard for me not to keep trying to talk to him, and let him just rest. I have some really great news that I must share. The ventilator bedside has a monitor next to it that shows lines as he breathes. Red lines mean that the machine is breathing for him, yellow lines mean assisted breathing. For the better part of the last three days, when he went to sleep, or dozed off, the lines went red. Yesterday we all noticed that the lines stayed yellow more often. During the night, I haven't seen red ALL NIGHT. Not once has a red line crossed the screen. I was able to visit with the respitory therapist in the night and she explained the screen to me. In the bottom left hand corner is a number and it is set to the number of breaths that they want him to take. In the upper left hand corner there is a number that David is actually taking himself. The set number is 12. The number he is taking himself has varied from 17 to as high as 27 through the night. I also asked her if his breathing was nerve activated, or muscle activated. She told me that it was muscle activated, by the diaphragm. I just paused because the doctor came in. He tested David and he said there was more movement in his left arm when he asked David to move his arm. He said "much stronger today" with a strong Asian accent that I have trouble understanding.
I want to take this opportunity to say something. I received a text from one of David's fellow officers yesterday. In the text he told me how David came back from his many trips to my house with stories of adventure, parties, fun and just plain mischief that somehow always happened when David and I got together. He went on to say that at times, it made him a little jealous that I got to spend that fun with David and he didn't. With him, most of the time was spent behind a badge, carrying a gun. I want to say to you guys, what you don't know is when he was at my house, he told stories of adventure behind the badge and gun. He told of chasing bad guys, arrests, kicking down doors, driving fast cars, pretending to be someone else in the cat mouse game that y'all play, and of course he told me some things that we won't be mentioning on here. I want to say, I was jealous also. I WANTED so bad to be there. I wanted to feel the trust that he shared with you EVERY day and any "those" situations. His trust and mine were built on a different world of trust. Your trust and his was bonded from depending on each others lives. Thank you officers, no, thank you to his "BROTHERS" for keeping him safe, when I couldn't.