After a day of doing absolutely nothing, yesterday I felt fantastic! The cats and I just laid around all day Wednesday. I looked at the floor and said "You need to vaccuum" and then "No, you're sick". I looked at the kitchen and said "You could at least load the dishwasher" and then "No, you're sick". I didn't read, or knit, or compute, or really pay attention to the TV. I just sat and dozed and slept. At all times there was a cat behind my head on the back of my chair and another one in my lap. But, that was our day.

When I woke up yesterday and I was wide awake and felt great and had energy...and felt that way all day, until about 9 last night and that's when I got tired. I'm not quite as perky this morning, the bed was too warm and comfy, but I'm up, cats all fed, first cup of coffee poured and ready to fill you in on Bill.

He did fine without me. He did his therapy, and the speech therapist, Amber, said that she was really impressed and then she sat and visited with him for awhile, listening to all of his military stories.

Yesterday he had indigestion all day, and was still bothered by hiccups when we talked last night. I told him to ask his nurse for something. They are giving him a protonic every morning to ward that off so that he doesn't have acid reflux, but it didn't work yesterday. His appetite was also off some and he didn't eat very well. He told me that they weighed him yesterday morning before I got there and he weighed 135 or 143, he couldn't remember which. But, the before he was admitted at the dr. he weighed 156, so that's quite a weight loss either way in a week! I'll have to ask his nurse today.

Dr. Munday came in while I was there and said he could still hear some crackles, but all in all he didn't sound bad. They are still working on getting his oxygen flow down lower before he comes home. He's still at 4 1/2-5 right now. 

But, he walked more than 100 ft. total with physical therapy and his oxygen only dropped to the low 80s, which is an improvement from the mid to upper 70s. And he recovered pretty well. He did stop and rest on his bed each time instead of making it all the way back to his chair, but that could also be because of the indigestion and belching he was doing.

And, Dr. Edwards has returned from wherever he was unfortunately. I think, even though for attending physician it has "teach", he has taken over his care from Dr. Yaranov. The only reason I know he's back and, the only reason I have that suspicion, is that Bill has been taken off his Bactrim again. For you new readers, the donor heart had been exposed to the CMV virus and Bill had never been exposed. So, it was considered a mismatch and the Bactrim, which is a sulpha based antibiotic, has been given ever since to ward off exposure. It's actually like one of his transplant medications. Bactrim can affect kidney function after long periods of time, and his nurse said that one of his kidney levels had gone up. So, that could be why he was taken off. I asked Dr. Patel, one of his Mayo doctors about that once and he said it was much easier to deal with marginal kidney function than to deal with the  
CMV. I'll ask Dr. Threlkeld about it. He put him back on it last time.

The IV steroids are playing havoc with his blood sugar. Yesterday it stayed in the 400s. They were using the standard sliding scale for insulin but yesterday added Lantus which is a long acting one, along with the regular insulin. They have also consulted with Dr. Oktied the endocrinologist and he will tweak things. I will need to ask if we go back to the NPH he was on once he is home and back on regular Prednisone.

They still aren't giving any discharge date yet. They know I want him as well as he can be. But, his suitcase and heavy jacket are in the car and when they say they are releasing him I can bring them in. He wants to come home so bad, but he knows he can't yet. I want him to come home, but only if he can maneuver around the house. Brianna has offered to do range of motion exercises with him of his shoulders and he knows the leg exercises to do. I imagine we'll have home health again for awhile.

I think that's about it and I need to get ready to go. It's cold this morning, only 32. But, it's not raining! I'm actually looking forward to the time change this week-end, not because I'll get an extra hour of sleep, it will be getting light earlier. Of course, it will be getting darkl earlier too, but it's easier to leave the hospital early than to get there later. They don't have much parking, everyone uses the same parking, so you have to get there early to get a decent spot.

All for today. I gave myself 30 minutes to get this written and I've gone over by 5 minutes! Have a great day, see you tomorrow!