I got quite a surprise yesterday morning as I was getting to the nursing home. As I get off the highway, I go right past the home and then have to come around from another direction to actually get to it. When I looked over at it, coming off, in the parking lot where I park is an ambulance with lights flashing. So I know something has happened. Just as I pull into the parking lot, another ambulance arrives with lights and sirens. So now I know something big is happening!

As I start walking up the sidewalk I see one of the maintenance men holding the door open and looking at the ambulance so I just step in between the 2 sections of the generator to be out of the way. But, the guy waves me to come on in.

I was met then by someone in administration who asks me who I was visiting and when I told her so asked to wait where I was and then was told to go into the small dining room where we had Bill's birthday party. The knitting maintenance man and another patient were in there and as soon as I was in, the door was closed. A few minutes we heard a gurney go racing by and we were given the all clear.

Since Bill's room is so close, it took just seconds to get there and open the door and he was laying in bed. I think all the commotion woke him up because the TV wasn't even on. So, I helped him out of bed, again he seemed very weak and it took him a couple of tries. Of course looking at his bed it is so low in the middle that it would be hard for most people to stand. Got him in his chair and got his tray cleaned off and my coat hung up and Miranda brought his breakfast. The ambulances are both still in the parking lot and she tells me, against HIPPA rules I'm sure, that it was a new patient who had just arrived and was in the room across the hall, and they were still working on him in the ambulance. She didn't think he was going to make it. So, it was rather subdued for the morning.

When Priscilla brought his meds in she said his white count was back up and since I had been sick, she was going to tell the nurse practitioner to see him. He ate most of his breakfast and then got dressed. He was congested with lots of sinus drainage, like he had had before.

We had a talk about me not being able to be there as much this week to get things ready for him to come home. I told him if I come early in the morning like I have been, then I have to leave at lunch time so I can work at home in the afternoons. Or, I can stay home in the mornings and go in the afternoon and stay a little later, even if it means driving that part of the road I hate in the dark. Or, split it up, come mid-morning, stay until mid-afternoon. That's the one he liked the most. It didn't matter to me which option, it's going to be making myself do the things I need to do since I've used my home time as my decompress/down time. I was going to come in later this morning, but I have to take Bill's little tablet in time for speech therapy. She wants to engage him in something other than his puzzle books for at home. We also talked with speech about him not being so dependent on me for everything. She does like that I don't tell him the answers to the questions, but will only give him a prompt if necessary.

When Tammy the practitioner saw him, he had no fever, and only a little cough. But, she thought she might start him on some amoxicillan as a precaution and check it again Friday. She said his heart rate was nice and steady at right at 100, which is a good rate, and that his lungs sounded clear! They haven't been clear in forever, and she listened for a good long time. We also went over his Prograf level and it is still low so we're just going to put him back on the last dosage Mayo had him on and see what that does. It could also be that because the level is low, and even though he's getting the Cellcept, his immune system is trying to work to get rid of "things". We don't think he's trying to go into any kind of rejection, but maybe he's trying to fight the pseudomonas that has colonized. I read more on that yesterday and that just means that it will always been in his body, just dormant.

He did do all of his therapies but didn't want much lunch and then had a breathing treatment. He didn't want to do physical therapy, but the therapist wouldn't take no for an answer. He had the little Filipino guy again. He just went to the gym and got some weights and resistance bands and a walker and did the therapy in the room. Bill didn't want to walk, but just as he was protesting, housekeeping wanted to come in and mop, so out he went. They are really fast and Bill said they only walked to the nurses station and part of the way back. But, he got it in.

I ended up leaving around 3. About 1 I got an alert from the alarm system that the power was out and it was running on backup battery. Then I got an alert that from the power company confirming it and it was estimated to be back on at 3, but at 3 I got another one that said the new eta was 8. So, I told Bill I needed to go home and start the generator. He wasn't happy about it, but understood. It came back on about 5.

Bill called about 5:30 and was back into the pitiful stage, saying he had to get out of there, no one came in, he was all alone and he needed me there. For every reason he had for hating it, I had an answer and I did not baby him. I know part of it is he doesn't feel well and hopefully the antibiotic will kick in faster for him that it did for me. He called me about 8 and sounded much better. He had gotten his pajamas on and then had them help him to bed. They turned most of the lights out, left the one over the empty bed on, but it's mostly shielded by the dividing curtain and he was watching TV. He sounded much better than he had earlier. but he did want to make sure I was coming this morning and when I would be there. So, we'll have to talk again about coming and going.

When I got home and opened the door, usually both cats are waiting right there, but I couldn't find Mouse. I looked down the hallway and the bedroom door was closed and when I opened it, there he was waiting. The way they greeted each other was like it had been a long time since they had seen each other, so at some point after I left I suspect they had one of their little fights and when Kitty ran out of the room she hit the door and shut him in. And, if it was right about the time the heat came on, that would have shut the door all the way instead of leaving it cracked enough for him to get out. He was quite happy to be free!
I'm going to find something to prop it open with today so that it won't happen again.

I think that catches everything up. We'll see how things are this morning, hopefully no ambulances!