And the improvement continues! Bill was eating breakfast when I got there yesterday. His nurse said that he had been bad in the night, taking off his oxygen. Now, he's worn oxygen at night since the end of 2016 and 24/7 since 2017 so he's used to it. But the size of the cannula on this high flow blended oxygen is about the size of a pencil and he says it's making his nose sore. And I can understand. It does use warmed, water to keep it from drying him out too much but the cannula just looks uncomfortable. Other than that she said he ate his dinner.

He ate most of his breakfast again. The eggs must be really bad because that is what he will leave, and I know the sausage is turkey sausage and he leaves some of that too. But he ate his Cheerios and banana. I don't think he got a shake and of course he couldn't remember if he drank it or not. On the things that are disposable, he just tosses them in the trash, and I didn't get a look before they took the trash.

Dr. Yaranov came in and said he looked a lot better and seemed better. When he listened to him he asked if he had just had a breathing treatment, and it had been about 20 minutes, and he said he sounded really good and clear, so those are working. Now, if we could only get him to suction it out. A little more on that later.

The lung dr. covering yesterday didn't even listen to him. I think sometimes they don't want to bother when the patient is under contact precautions. Not only do they have to gown and glove, there is a special stethoscope that's to be used only for him. Most of them use their own and either cover it with a glove or sanitize it after use, but he was just in the room about 1 minute, didn't check the settings on the oxygen or anything. All he asked about was bleeding. Maybe I'm wrong about him being a lung dr., maybe he was a GI dr., but they haven't come by since the stool sample was negative for blood.

Bill got into his chair for lunch, reluctantly. They had brought his lunch and I left to go get mine, and when I got back, he was on the bedside commode and the room was a disaster! He was upset that they weren't cleaning him up so that he could eat, they were rearranging his room to get his recliner to the other side because of the oxygen set-up, it was time for his antibiotic to be hung, and since he needed to have his backside cleaned, they decided to give him a quick bath! So, he was not a happy camper! Finally got it all done and him settled so that he could eat and he ate everything but his squash (he's not a big squash person). He had also eaten another package of crackers about an hour before. He also told me that one of his ears popped! And he was acting like you do on a plane with your ears, so whatever had been going on with them was starting to resolve. Maybe the drops were helping. Anyway, the TV was not blaring. I just wish they would get it fixed so that we could stop watching Animal Planet. Of the channels he gets, that's the only one he really likes. Maybe Monday.

When he was ready to get back to bed, after being in his chair for 3 1/2 hours, I tried to get him to stay in it through dinner, but he wasn't having it. When I told Eunice the PCA he was ready she was a little short and said something about going to surgery! It turns out it was the patient in the next room and they were getting ready to move him/her so another nurse came in to help him get to bed and she was a little snippy, demanding the TV be turned off first thing, she said she needed the quiet to be able to hear. Since he wasn't her patient I guess she was wanting to listen in case her patient needed her. After she got him back into bed and the room rearranged some again I was telling Bill that he needed to use his suction when he coughed the stuff up instead of swallowing it so that they could look at it to make sure there wasn't any blood in it. The nurse said "we don't need to see it", which defeated my purpose. I just told her that if he thought they did, maybe he would use it.

He did make an observation the night before and, although he was wrong in his assumption, he was clearly observing what was going on in the hallway. I noticed when I left that our friend Pete had been taken for a procedure, whether it was surgery to remove the pump they had to reinsert or something else. I knew the room was empty, at least of Pete and his machines, but there was a lot of other machinery and things in there. Yesterday morning Bill beckoned me to his bed and pointed to Pete's room (with Pete back in it) and told me that the guy who had been in there before had died and they didn't even clean the room before they put this other man in there! So I reassured him that it was Pete in the room and he hadn't died. He was just beside himself thinking that they put a patient in a dirty room where someone had died!

He keeps asking how many more days he has to be there, and I wish I could give him an answer. I just tell him his breathing has to get better so he can be on the lower dose of oxygen at home and he has to get much stronger. Hopefully he'll work hard with Travis in therapy this week, and if they can get him off the blended oxygen, maybe he can start to take a few steps and begin walking.

Friday was 4 weeks since he was admitted and today is 30 days. He was admitted on Friday, November 15. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but since the days just run together it makes sense. Eunice said if he keeps it up he could be home for Christmas. At this point, I would be happy for him to be moved to step-down for Christmas! We shall see what happens.

I'm going later again this morning. And my commute home and both directions tomorrow will be in the rain. It could rain this morning on me but it's only a slight chance. At least it's just rain and not ice. Hopefully his good days will continue now, makes me feel better anyway! 

Until next time...