Wait and see

James has been fairly steady over the last 12+ hours, which is to say that he's been steadily unsteady. He still has a lot to worry about and his team of doctors are watching him closely. He's on a lot of medication, and needs more meds that he's not stable enough to begin. They're going to leave him be today, but check him frequently, and as soon as anything improves they'll gradually lower some doses and start integrating the next wave of meds.

He has a lot of fluid retention which has leaked around his heart and lungs and keeps him swollen and his blood pressure low. But treating this would drop his blood pressure, and it's already too low to allow that...

He had a very rough time immediately after the surgery, and all afternoon yesterday we were unable to see him while his doctors worked to bring down his temperature and get him hydrated and stable. Although they didn't give us details until afterwards, he was in critical condition. He's much more stable now, but will not be out of the woods for awhile.

His big concerns today are raising his blood pressure and getting the excess fluid to start draining. He still has a fever on and off but it has stuck to manageable levels throughout the night.

The BIG next step is taking out the breathing tube. Ideally this would have come out yesterday, but James is no where near ready yet to breathe on his own. The tube will stay in until Friday, most likely, if his current trajectory holds.