This is going to be hard to do today. As I was getting out a bag of popcorn last night, the edge of the box sliced under my fingernail. Now, y'all know how that feels! So with 2 bandaids on my finger, it's a little hard to type this morning. I can probably take them off, but right now it's too early in the morning for all that. So, I'll suffer through.

Bill is coming home today!!! Other than his indigestion from the day before that carried over to yesterday, he's so much better. He finished  the entire regime of IV antibiotics and while I forgot to ask what his white count was, he was just...better. Not coughing as much and not laboring to breathe at rest like he had been. The main problem from the last 2 days was indigestion and feeling bloated. I finally asked him and he couldn't remember, so I asked his nurse when his last bowel movement was. He couldn't remember, but Emily said it had been a couple of days, even with Colace. I guess one of the side effects of the IV steroid can be constipation. So, I think he was just full. When he did have to go it took him a little longer than normal. He's one of those that sits, does his business and is done. Horace, the aide said that it was a good solid one. That made him feel better for awhile. I told Emily (nurse Emily not daughter Emily) that he may go again since he was now opened some. All of the indigestion signs went away...until after dinner. When he called me the hiccups were back. I told him to ask for something again. They had given him something like Gaviscon during the day. I told him they didn't want him to get any acid reflux which could cause pneumonia again and may actually have caused this one.

He did all of his therapies, including working with occupational therapy with a therapist that I'm not fond of. I can't say that I don't like her because I don't know her, but she's very loud and a little overbearing. But, he needed to work with her, so I encouraged him to do it. He had already shaved. I took his electric razor with me yesterday and he did that as soon as he finished breakfast. But, he went in and washed up and got a new gown on and looked a little more human.

Speech came in and his swallowing exercises were finished in about 10 minutes. He breezed through those. His breathing ones also went fast, so she increased the resistance on his little device. She didn't just go up one notch, but 2 so he's on the next to the highest resistance. She's been really impressed with him.

Physical therapy came in and we went over the home health group we use as they are going to set him up for that again. He didn't walk quite as far as the day before, but he did well and, while his sats dropped to 77 at one point, he rebounded quickly, even into the mid-90s.

Respiratory had set his oxygen at 3 1/2 after his afternoon breathing treatment so Emily was checking his saturation a little more frequently to make sure he was maintaining at least his baseline of 88. The last time she checked it was 96, which is better than a lot of "normal" people. She told him she was impressed and he said he was glad he could impress someone, just as Dr. Williams walked in. I pointed to him and told Bill he was the one who had to be impressed and he said that he already was. He gave him a listen and said "I'm gonna tell Edwards he can go" and texted him right there and then. A few minutes later Cindy came in and said that lung gave us the green light to leave. I asked if he could wait until today since it was almost 3 then. She agreed that since it was so late in the day that would be fine. She had said earlier that we would talk about leaving on Monday, for him to just work hard over the week-end. But, lung won the day, as they should have since it is a lung problem that got him there.

So, I've got his suitcase in the car, it was in there from day one, and his heavy coat since it's gotten cold and as soon as they can get the paperwork done and the PICC line removed (unless he's coming home with steroid injections and that hasn't been talked about yet) we'll be out of there.

I told Bill I wasn't coming super early today since it's Saturday. I won't have to look for a good parking place and traffic will be lighter. Although ESPN's College Game Day is in Memphis this week, so there may be more traffic, but it's in an area that I'm not near, so once I get to the city it shouldn't be bad. I'm going to throw the sheets in the wash in a bit so they will be fresh when he gets home, but I'm just going to take my time this morning.

I feel very comfortable with him coming home this time since I can tell that he's feeling better, unlike last time. I hope his discharge instructions are a little more detailed with follow-ups, unlike last time, but I'll also take the initiative with that too.

I had a place come up on my back a few days ago. I thought I had just scratched a pimple open as it was a little weepy and didn't think much about it. But the next day I felt the area, which is almost out of reach no matter which direction I reach and it felt like a much bigger spot and was scaly. I could kind of get a look at it using mirrors but couldn't really tell, so Emily came over last night to look at it. She took a picture of it and it looks ugly. We had too thoughts on it, a psoriasis or shingles. It doesn't really hurt and it's only the one spot. She sent the picture to Mary-Rose and she said it looks more like a contact dermatitis and to just keep it clean and use an antibiotic ointment. Hard to do since I can't reach it. Anyway, when I went to bed last night, in addition to my regular Zantac (and I'm still taking it even though there's a chance that there might be something in it that could cause cancer), a Benadryl and one of Bill's prednisone. That's the magic cocktail for hives. I figured it couldn't hurt and it's not itchy this morning.

So, that's it for the latest update. Even though I don't need to leave right away, I still need to feed the outside cats and get the sheets in the wash and get dressed. I'll let you know when we get home and how that goes and then next week, we will most likely be back to our weekly updates. 

Later, everybody!