Back to more normal today. Went to Mayo to have some bloodwork done. Dr. Yip wanted to check for CMV which is similar to herpes or chicken pox. It's one of those viruses that can lie dormant, but Bill did not have the antibodies for it before the transplant. As far as they know the donor heart also was not a carrier but it can develop at any time, especially in heart transplants. All of the bloodwork was fine so they don't have any idea what has caused the diahrea. He didn't have any of it today and when he finally had a bowel movement it was completely solid for the first time. Maybe it was a combination of food and Ensure and meds and learning how to digest all of it again. We may never know!

Bill felt much better today and ate well for all 3 meals. The kitchen messed up again and sent him a salad instead of the other entree. But, I think this was 1 of the days that he didn't really like anything offered, or there were too many raw veggies so I was going to bring him lunch. But when Lisa checked with the kitchen they said he was getting a tray. He finally got roast pork with mushroom gravy and fries. He also ate some potato soup and fruit cocktail. Dinner was roast rosemary chicken and rice pilaf and he ate most of it.

Again, with more fluids on board, he was on an even keel so yesterday must have been due to not even fluid again. So the fluids were pushed and he drank without too much complaining.

His next biopsy is August 20 and I talked to Stephanie about the logistics about his discharge.We have to have enough lead time to get his meds from the specialty pharmacy and go over them with Stephanie so that I know what they look like and when they should be given. I already know most of it since I've had to stay on top of it now. But, it won't hurt to have a refresher course. That's generally done before discharge from the hospital, but since we were more concerned with the stroke aspect, we didn't do too much teaching.

We had a very nice surprise this afternoon. A former co-worker of Bill's and a client of mine is in Jacksonville visiting his daughter and meeting his new granddaughter and he came by to visit with us for a little while. It was great to see him. He'll be back in November for Thanksgiving and he said if there is anything he can bring us at that time or if there is anything he can do at home just to let him know. He's a great guy and it was really nice to see him. We also had a visit from Faith and Abner. We hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks and they were surprised to see how good Bill looked. They weren't able to stay long because Abner had an appointment at Mayo but it was also good to see them.

All for tonight. Laundry for Bill is done and my eyes are getting heavy, so I'm off to bed.