Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:21 PM

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:21 PM, EDT

Kyle had a pretty good day today. The tracheostomy was successful, feeding tube inserted and a couple of other little procedures - all done with no complications! The breathing tube is out of his mouth - thank goodness - and feeding tube gone from his nose and all vitals are stable. It will be a while before we'll hear his voice and right now it's very difficult for him to communicate with us, but we're learning his signals and trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

We had a meeting with a representative from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, the facility that is first on our list to send him to. We'll know in the next 48 hours of his acceptance and then begin the process of transporting him down there.

His vitals are stable, breathing well on the new trach tube and now we want to get him out of there as fast as we can to begin the next phase of his recovery. He is more alert than in past days, due to the complete removal of sedation medication, but is kept comfortable on pain meds when he needs them. He needs to now get out of the bed more and into a rehab program, something we hope to have him working on by the beginning of the week.

Thank you for ALL the cards and letters and visitors and calls of support from family and friends. We tell Kyle all about the notes and cards he's received and will be sending them with him to Atlanta.

More tomorrow...