Hi again, this morning was good. I only intended to stay for 15 minutes but they decided to remove the ventilator and just give him some oxygen.

And it worked! So I decided to stick around a little.

Walt was breathing totally on his own, starting at 9:20am and he was still breathing on his own when I left 45 minutes later! The nurse (Marie, for those of you who are keeping track) was shouting words of encouragement as he coughed - "Good cough Walter, keep it up!". Not typical for Marie, at least not in my limited exposure to her.

Also: The "mits" they had on his hands are off. No tubes in his wrists or arms either (they moved them to his legs). Gone too are the restraints. Now he is free to scratch his nose and chin and rub his eyes; a freedom of which he is taking advantage with reckelss abandon (i.e. he scratches alot). So overall, he seems alot more comfortable. He shook my hand, albeit with a little prodding from me but he did the shaking motion - ya know, the up and down stuff, not just the grip.

And right before I left, they sat him up in a chair, with ESPN on the TV in front of him.

Ya know, I still look up to him.