I've been needing to update this for a couple of days. But, AT&T didn't want to cooperate and then I didn't get a good signal at the hospital. Yes, that's right, the hospital. 

Dr. Burbeck wanted to see Bill Tuesday and he felt particularly bad that day. She had some xrays done and sent him straight across the street, via the underground tunnel no less, to the emergency room. Pneumonia, both lungs. But, this time the wait in ER was only about 4 hours instead of 8, maybe because it was a direct admit this time and she had called over.

There have been a few glitches this time and I'm not sure how to handle a couple of them without doing some thinking first. I'm going to throw them out here and if any of you have any suggestions, please comment and let me know.

It seems like the level of care has lessened. He is still in the same gown as Tuesday (as of Thursday morning). I know the only part of him that has been washed is his behind after a bowel movement yesterday. Other than that, his bed has not been straightened, except by me. 

I had requested in the emergency room that any pulmonary consults be done by the group that we use. The transplant program uses a different group. Well, yesterday one of their nurses came in and told us we had to switch to their group because they are the ones that cover transplant, and even though she was sure they were fine doctors in the other group, we had to switch to them for any out of hospital care. I told her he was not in the Memphis Transplant program as one of their patients and he was only in this unit because he was a transplant patient from Mayo, but she wasn't buying it. I finally agreed just to get her to leave but I was really upset. I finally decided that just because she said we had to see them, didn't mean we had to. I can understand it if he were here for transplant related reasons, but he's not. We can't be made to make appointments with them and it seems like they are trying to steal patients. Another thought I had, after I calmed down some was the old Obamacare "If you like your dr., you can keep your dr." 

The head of the pulmonary transplant team came in yesterday shortly after the nurse and I did like him. He is repeating the bronchoscopy today. He and Dr. Threlkeld have reviewed the CT scan and both have agreed that it hasn't shown much significant change from the one in June. He said they will take more samples this time and he said he would do more snipping (I think it's going to be more like a heart biopsy with taking minute pieces of tissue) to see if that gives them any idea of what is in there.

I don't think they are giving him any antibiotics that I can tell. I don't see it in his med list. I do know they are giving him some Magnesium IV because his level was a little low. Bill tells me that they do another IV, but I haven't seen it hung yet. I've had to leave at different times so he could be. Maybe some answers today.

He only has a 7 ft. length of oxygen tubing so he is pretty much tied to his bed, although it has been ordered for exercise as tolerated. When he was helped to the bathroom yesterday, instead of getting a longer length of tubing, they just took it off and he was really in distress by the time he was finished. He really wants to sit in the recliner instead of just staying in bed, but it won't reach and they don't seem inclined to let him out of bed.

His room is right across from the nurses station and it is rather noisy. He said it's especially noisy at night and they want to keep his door open so they can keep an eye on him. He asked them repeatedly last night to shut the door as he was trying to sleep. He also said that it was very noisy with people talking and laughing. I know it's normal for them to congregate at the desk, but they could at least speak softly.

So, here we are. We don't know what time he is scheduled for the procedure. But since it's after 7 we know it wasn't then. He's been NPO since midnight and he's going to get cranky without some food before long, althoughh he's barely eaten since he's been here. I left the house at 5 this morning to be here early in case he was the 7 am case so I'm now getting a little sleepy and hungry. I'm planning on hitting the cafeteria when they take him. I can get there and back before they call with the results.

I'll update this again after we have some results. So, far there is no plan for discharge. He has not seen any hospitalist this time, he's only seen specialists, cardiology, infectious disease, and pulmonary.