I HAVE BEEN VINDICATED!!! Yesterday when I got to the hospital, only a little later than planned because things did not work out for voting, Bill had a couple of IVs going. He usually just has his antibiotic, but there was another little bag and it wasn't long before his nurse came in to change that bag and hang a new one. She said his potassium was extremely low. I was right that the Lasix was pulling too much fluid from his muscles...and it pulled the potassium. So, muscle cramps, feet hurting, cloudy mind...all stems from being "dry", meaning not enough fluid in his blood. We've lived with that for 6 1/2 years, I know those signs! I asked his nurse about the Lasix doing it and she just said "oh yeah". I told her that she was the first person in 3 days to agree with me and she was incredulous. 

Dr. Shirwanny, one of the cardiologists came in, and I asked him if he knew why the Bactrim had been discontinued. I explained about the heart mismatch and that even though Bactrim can affect kidney function, Dr. Patel from Mayo had explained that the chronic kidney disease was much easier to deal with than the virus that the donor heart had been exposed to. At first he frowned and kind of shrugged, but then nodded and said he would look in his chart. He didn't come back in to tell me anything, but at least a dr. finally listened!

At lunch Bill had baked chicken, one of his favorites, but he was only going to eat his sherbet! I told him he couldn't even open it until he had eaten his dinner, unlike the day before when all he ate was his applesauce, which is dessert in the hospital. It wasn't long that the leg quarter was just bones and the only thing left was the zucchini/squash mixture that looked revolting to start with. After that he decided to get up in his chair. As he stood I looked at his ankles and I bet I could just about get my hand completely around it. It looked like there was no meat on them at all. He walked a little better but his O2 dropped to 85 and took a bit to come back up. Some of that could be that his hand was cold and there wasn't a good pulse point in that finger.

Shortly after that, Dr. Fox came in and asked about home oxygen. Here at home he gets 4 liters of continuous feed. That means that it flows whether he takes a breath or not. At the hospital he's getting 6 liters (and that is just the measurement) continuous feed and it is humidified to keep him from getting so dried out...that's not making a lot of difference with pulling so much fluid. Our concentrator at home only goes to 5, and the gauges on his portable regulator for the tanks only go to 4, so they will have to try to wean him down some. 

There is still no discussion of going home although Bill mentions it all the time. I made the comment to his nurse that he couldn't go home with his level in the 80s and she asked if I had been told that. I told her no, that was my decision, that if he is still so weak that I can't take care of him, he doesn't come home.

I need to find who to talk to about in patient rehab since we are at day 10 with only 2 pt visits, no cardiac visits, and 1 ot visit. He's made the comment that he's getting sicker and not better and in some respects that is very true. He is better from pneumonia, I think, but physically he's much worse. I doubt that there's anyone there today to find out about a transfer to rehab when the time comes, but there should be tomorrow. The case manager will be back on. And whether they use a facility in Memphis or not, I want him transferred to Jonesboro. It's a much easier drive for me and anyone who would want to visit.

There you have, a much better day yesterday. Hopefully he will be up in his chair having breakfast when I get there today. He seems to be getting too comfortable just staying in the bed all day and then complaining that it hurts to move when he does get up. But, he's not fighting about getting out of bed alone, so he knows that he's too weak to even try.

Even thought it's not quite 6 am, I'm probably going to get moving some and head on out. I'm not looking forward to it getting dark earlier now, makes it hard for these old eyes to see at night. And tomorrow is supposed to become stormy right about the time I would be going home so it may be a short day tomorrow. We have a chance of strong storms with wind, hail and heavy rain. They haven't ruled out tornadoes but right now it's a slim chance, all supposed to start about 5.

Here's hoping that today is even better than yesterday!