Today was not as good a day as yesterday and I'm pretty tired and getting a headache, but I don't want to wait until the morning to update.

When I got there this morning, Bill was still sleeping and I noticed that the meds to raise blood pressure and heart rate had been started again. Connor said that they both started dropping a little after I left yesterday so Dr. Edwards wanted to start the meds again. The one for blood pressure is set at such a low rate he's barely getting any. But, his pressure is staying up more, so it's enough when added to the other blood pressure medicine he gets. His hematocrit was also under 25 again, so he got a unit of blood. Because of the added meds, in addition to the ones he had been getting, they needed to bring in another IV pump and start another IV. That was the tricky part, his veins are shot. Connor couldn't get one, but Bishop did, although he lost it this afternoon (more on that later).

Bill was sounding a little junky again, so they did yet another broncoscopy. I heart Connor say that of the 14 rooms in the unit, 12 were getting bronched today. Dr. Munday was very busy!

Bill slept off and on most of the day after that. He said that his throat hurt and we figure that it was from the procedure and he was snoring and since he doesn't have much to keep his mouth moist it's not surprising. 

He started reaching for his groin area and I told him he couldn't go there and he told me he had to pee and poop. I told him there was a tube there and he could go ahead and pee and that they would clean him up when he pooped. His stool was a little more solid today than it had been, which is good because the insides of his legs are so chafed from all the stools. Connor said that he did urinate around the catheter a little. It was surprising that he felt the urge so maybe they can start trying to get the catheter out.

They were going to try the trach collar, but it hadn't been done when I left, and I don't think it would be anyway. Connor only worked until 3 today and Bishop, who took over for him, was also in charge of the unit today, and 2 new patients came in after 3.  The respiratory tech wanted to make sure that Bishop would have the time to devote to watching him to make sure he didn't get into trouble, and since he was going to be tied up with the one of the new patients I doubt that it happened.

After Bill got his Cipro, when the IV pump beeped that it was finished, he told me that his arm hurt so I looked at the site and it was red and swollen. Lauren came in and looked at it and said that it would have to come out, but since he wasn't her patient she didn't want to do it without Bishop knowing. So she wrapped it in a warm cloth to see if the swelling would go down. I imagine they got it taken care of by now. I hate that I needed to leave when I did, but my head was starting to really ache and it was getting to be a bad traffic time.

I think that's all of the highlights, without consulting my notes. And I'm too comfy here to get up and get it.

And now, a personal note, Mom, thanks for the caramels! Ronna must have told you what I did! Anyway, Ryan came by tonight for a few minutes and I shared some with him even though he said I didn't need to. But, I will savor the rest!

Goodnight all, more of this saga to come tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a better day again.