This has been a so-so week. Amy did come and draw Bill's labs. I finally called the office Tuesday to get the results and his white count was perfectly normal at 8.1. He had therapy Tuesday and was still coughing a lot and got winded easily. I messaged the dr. with all the info I had, blood pressure good, O2 sat on room air 94, heart rate good, appetite good, no fluid retention, no fever. I knew the Connie was going to be off Thursday and Friday so, if she wanted to see him it would have to be Wednesday. She just said to double his Lasix (he's not on Lasix), and we would start Prednisone again. 

They didn't get those called in until late Wednesday so I wasn't able to pick them up until Thursday. I had to take Kiyann to get her 11-year old shots for school and she has panic attacks with shots. But, the nurse practitioner told me to give her a bear hug and told her to hang on and we got them done, boom boom in the same arm and then she said "that didn't hurt''! Bill was achy when I got him up and he wanted to cancel therapy, so I called Tammy to let her know. While we were waiting to see the dr,, our office called and said that Tammy had called to let them know he had cancelled and the nurse she spoke to called Connie and Connie said she wanted him to go to ER in Memphis to get worked up. After picking up the new meds and getting home, I told Bill what she said, and he refused. He said he didn't want to stay in the ER for 8 hours to find out he had a cold! I can't say as I blame him. But, I called Dr. Burbeck, the pulmonologist, and her nurse said that if she wanted to make any changes to what Connie had ordered with meds, or if she thought he needed to been seen in Memphis they would call back and they did not, so she must have agreed. I did give him some Tylenol Sinus meds and that has been a big help.

Now, generally I would not have gone against the medical advice, but this time I agreed with Bill, that it was just a cold, especially with the change in the weather. Others are suffering with this and Emily has bronchitis. So, I'm comfortable just keeping an eye on him. I did increase his oxygen and he is keeping it on all the time again. I got a little concerned yesterday when I checked his O2 sat and it was only 88 with oxygen. It did finally come up to the low 90s which is acceptable. He was not as winded walking. Last night he woke me about 11:30 telling me he wasn't getting any oxygen. I could feel it coming out against my hand but he kept insisting that he wasn't getting any. So I started checking all the tubing, and sure enough, there was a small split in one of the longer tubes. That's a quick change and he could tell then that it was working. I don't think he woke up again the rest of the night and is still asleep.

Our little kitten can come home Monday afternoon. She had to have the leg amputated. The dr. said that she would be able to be released back to the "wild" but she's not healed enough for that yet. We could leave her longer, until that time comes, or we can bring her in until she's completely healed. We talked it over and decided to bring her into the house. We don't know if she would be able to defend herself and escape from any prey. So we are borrowing a large dog kennel to keep her in. When she was in the house the day that she was captured, there was a lot of hissing going on between her and Cat so I don't know how Cat will do, hence the kennel. We will keep them separate, especially at night, but try to slowly get them used to each other during the day. We had not planned on having 1 cat, let alone 2, and this one may go out as soon as the stitches come out and she's completely healed. We'll just have to see. It may also do Cat some good to have a baby to take care of. She's been wandering the house meowing like crazy.

Ryan told me that Amanda had been acting strangely this week. She had a headache she couldn't get rid of, and then her brother who had been staying with them stole Ryan's truck when they told him he had to find another place to live. This man is 38 years old and wasn't working and was barely helping do anything around the house. Ryan told me that he would mow the yard, but if it got above 85, he was done. Now, this is Arkansas and the average temp right now is 92, so there wasn't a lot of mowing going on. Anyway, I got a strange message from Amanda while I was texting Ryan, and finally got her to agree to getting some mental health counselling. She was telling me that she was dizzy, blurry eyed, bp was high, fatigued, and faint. But, she hadn't eaten for more than 24 hours. I told her she had to eat and she said that she couldn't that it made her sick, but she didn't want them to put in a feeding tube. I told her she wasn't her dad (who had a feeding tube). She also said she just wanted to end all the pain and I asked her if she wanted to put Ryan and the baby through that and she said no. That's when she said she would go to a mental health facility for in-patient care and then left right then for the ER. While at the ER, they said they wanted to check her medically before calling the mental health consult in and found that the aspirin level in her body was sky high. They couldn't figure out why because she doesn't take aspirin, although she was taking Excedrin for her headache, but hadn't taken enough of it for the level to be where it was. They finally figured out that ALL of her medications had aspirin in them and she was overdosing without even knowing it! They did admit her and hopefully the level is as close to 0 as they can get it. Some of the meds she has to have, like her seizure meds. She's supposed to have the consult today, if she is totally clear headed. She now says she wants to come home, but Ryan told her if she started acting like she was, she was going straight back to the hospital. I think the service they are going to use does out-patient counselling too so that may be an option. Ryan does start a new job Tuesday, finally! It's back at the plant he was at last. I told him he HAS to stick with it and support his family, including Kayden and Kiyann, that's his main responsibility. Tori will have to grow up and be a mother to her son and Amanda will just have to get used to Ryan not being there at her beck and call to do everything. He's at the end of his rope and said that he was ready to crawl back into a bottle. He's already beaten that once and he acknowledged that he probably wouldn't climb out of it this time. It's only the thought of the kids that keeps him from doing it.

I still haven't heard anything about the endoscopy, but I have managed to eat with no problems this week, including a steak and a baked pork chop! Just little tiny bites that take an hour to eat. I'll be so glad to eat normally again!

So, we've had an exciting week. I'll take mundane and boring any day! See you next week with the next installment!