Early post today. We've had our ups and downs so thought I'd let you know what has happened.

He wasn't feeling nauseous this morning but was not hungry and only had cereal for breakfast. He said he kept going from cold to hot last night and only had a sheet when I came in.

The rest of the chest tubes came out which should make him feel a lot better. He also did an excellent job getting up from his bed and into his chair. He only needed 1 person and me to help him and he was very steady!

The doctors are still really concerned about his O2 levels. They were trying to wean him off of the high volume humidified oxygen. The therapist we had today was really good and decided to just play with different. When she put him on just regular O2 he did better. But his blood gases showed that he was still too low. So, they put him on a mask instead of the cannula and the difference was amazing! He had been telling them that he wasn't getting any air through his nose because his nose was full of junk but they weren't listening! Anyway, just to be sure there wasn't a pulmonary embolism causing the problem, a lung doctor was called in and a CT scan was done. The scan was negative but, as a precaution, he has been moved back to ICU.

His levels are much better now, but they've put him back on the cannula! We got the doctor to compromise, at night or when he is resting, if his levels drop, he will go to a mask. But, if he's up to eat, he uses the cannula. So far the cannula is working well.

I had a little tiff with a lab tech and won. She wanted to use his left arm to draw some blood, but there has been a no blood pressure or needle stick notice because of the blood clot. She was going to use it anyway until I called her on it. I could tell she was ticked off, but she used the right arm anyway!

We just finished the dressing change and changed him from battery power to the power base unit and Maria (our nurse) said that I got an A. It's getting easier and easier.

The nurses we had seen before were all waving at him as he came down the hall and have stopped in to see him. We just told them that we missed them and wanted to come back.

We don't know how long he'll be up here. It could only be for the night.

I'll update again after I get home. Hopefully nothing else will happen today!