This will probably be another short post, but every time I say that, it never turns out that way. But this time, I think will be different.

Bill was awake and alert when I got there yesterday morning. He's still coughing up stuff, but now it's so much easier to suction. The nurses of course can go deep into the trach and suction, but when he coughs hard enough, it will come out the tube and I can lift the oxygen mask and suction it from there. That way it doesn't just drop onto his skin and irritate it. They try to keep gauze or a cloth there, but sometimes that doesn't work.

He's already learned how to talk around it, and it's supposed to be impossible to talk with it in. But he was making noises and words. If he enunciates and moves his mouth slowly enough, I'm able to understand him, just watching his mouth. 

He had gone from 100% oxygen directly after surgery to 70% when I left yesterday. They are weaning him very slowly and watching his sats carefully. They did a chest xray to see if a bronch was still needed, and it was another dr. covering that I didn't get to see. There had been no decision made before I left and he may have been leaving it up to Dr. Smith to make the decision.

Bill was very agreeable with people, waving at them as they walked by and shaking hands if they came in. He was even nice to Cindy, who is the least invasive person he sees! But it seems like she always comes after they have done something to/with him and he's not in a good mood.

I left early yesterday to get some laundry done. And Ryan and Amanda and the kids were bringing me dinner last night. With people taking pity on me I'm going to gain back the weight I've lost! But, I break it into 2 meals, so I have dinner ready again tonight.

That's about it for this episode. Hopefully they'll decided about the bronch today. If they aren't going to do it, maybe they will start capping it and letting him eat, after another swallow evaluation that I requested instead of going straight to a swallow study. I'll let you know!