And, just like that, whatever had gone on before was over! As I was walking down the hall to Bill's room yesterday morning I could see him waving through the closed door! He even had the lights out and the TV off, yet there was enough light coming through the windows that I could see him. He was in a great mood, although he still can't hear anything unless you are right up on him practically yelling.

It was pretty early still but all he wanted was his breakfast and when it finally came...he ate like he hadn't eaten for a week (and he pretty much hadn't)! On his tray was scrambled eggs, French toast, a small cup of yogurt, coffee, milk, and a Glucerna shake, I had gotten him some Cheerios in the cafeteria the day before hoping to entice him to eat but it was still unopened. That container is twice the size he would get on a tray. He ate all of his French toast, most of his eggs, all of the Cheerios and drank the shake, coffee, and rest of the milk. He doesn't like yogurt  so I wasn't surprised he didn't eat it. His blood sugar was also 230 fasting, so whatever had gone haywire the day before was righting itself.

Audiology came in after I had left Thursday and did a couple of hearing tests. I don't have any results, only the business cards they left. I didn't see them before I left yesterday either and I stayed a little later. I also don't know if physiotherapy came in.

Dr. Threlkeld said that I was on to something when I said to just let him and his body dictate the therapy. He's only going to keep him on the antibiotics for another couple of days and then re-evaluate. He's trying to keep this strain of pseudomonas from becoming resistant to the antibiotics since it only responds to about 4 of them.

Dr. Wozniak said that his chest xray looked a teeny bit better yesterday, nothing to get too excited about, but there was a slight improvement. He did say that he is getting maximum treatment and we will just continue. I think the only other thing that could be done would be to intubate him, but that doesn't address the problem of him needing to work to strengthen his lungs himself.

He's still on the blended oxygen, and how it's blended is a mystery to me. I do know they are starting to cut it back some. The respiratory tech said that he was on 55% pure oxygen at 50 liters. That's a huge amount of liters. But, from what I can find out from googling, and all it wants me to really do is buy the special tubing it needs, is that it works kind of like a CPAP or BIPAP by forcing a lot of air pressure to the bottom of the lungs...I think. Anyway, they are going to slowly wean him by .5 increments on the oxygen until he's at about 40% which is about what we normally breathe, and then start cutting the flow back until he can be put back on the other system.

About an hour before lunch, Bill ate a package of 6 or 8 peanut butter crackers and then ate 1/2 his pork chop, most of his rice pilaf, maybe a bite or 2 of cabbage and his ice cream, along with his shake and tea. His sugar was nearly 400! But, he was eating and they knew what contributed to the increase and just gave him some extra insulin.

I had told him when I went to get lunch not to touch the volume on the TV and the nurses said the first thing he did when I walked out of the room was start turning it up! It was on 47 when I left and 99 when I got back! And when I was leaving for the day and talking to the nurses, he was already turning it up again. The night secretary was laughing, because his room is right across from where she sits, and she said he'll push his call button, but then speaks so softly she has to get up and go see what he wants because the TV is so loud. Hopefully they can figure something out about his hearing. We know he needs hearing aids and he can get them free from the VA, but it's just getting him to a VA office. I wonder if we can get the VA to come to him. Something else to work on.

The only time he got a little belligerent all day was when it was time for therapy. He was adamant that he was not doing it and told Travis to get out. I told him if he was going to be ugly I was leaving and pulled my gown open. He decided then that he would do therapy. He's limited even more now with this other oxygen set-up. They did some leg exercises in the bed and then he sat on the bed twice. But, as soon as he sat up, his sats dropped in the 70s. He was not happy at all sitting. He did much better the 2nd time and when he got back into bed, it was put into chair mode. He's gotten very comfortable with reclining at about a 45 degree angle, which doesn't let his lungs inflate.

He called me about 7 last night and said he had eaten his dinner. I know he was having baked fish and he likes that, so he probably ate most of it anyway. I put a little pad of what they use to prevent bedsores on his phone to show him where to hold it. He kept holding it where the volume button is and turning the speaker down and then saying that the battery was shot and he needed a new one. Now, if you recall, this is a new phone, and I make sure it is charged before I leave every night! So, I told him to hold where the padding was and it worked last night apparently. He didn't complain about it once!

So, a much better day yesterday. I'm going a little later this morning. It's very foggy again so I'm waiting until daylight to leave. That's one of the reasons he called last night. He had watched the news and they were talking about the fog and he wanted me to be careful, so he's OK with me not getting there for breakfast with him. I'm just enjoying the little extra time at home in my pjs! Hopefully today will be as good, if not better. I'll let you know!