Apparently my early exit on Wednesday caused a major anxiety attack for Bill later in the evening and everyone again panicked and...back on full vent. An entire week has again been lost. 

Even though he has lost all of that time, one of the doctors even questioned the decision made by the pulmonary nurse, he had a good day yesterday. And the vent was turned down and put into another mode. This mode senses when Bill breathes and doesn't over breathe as soon as he exhales. It can also tell if he hasn't breathed when he should have and will initiate a breath. Hopefully it will get turned down today, unless Dr. Edwards overrode the decision last night. These doctors are wanting him off the vent as much as I am, knowing that he will become truly dependent on it if he is not weaned a little faster. Of course part of it could be that there have been inspectors in the hospital and everyone is super aware and jumping. Goals were added to his white board that hadn't been there before and I was told they may ask to come in and ask me some questions.

Bill also has a standing order for Ativan, which as most of you know is an anti-anxiety drug. Why they didn't give that is also a mystery. I suppose the only way to really know is for me to stay there 24/7 and even though I could, it wouldn't do me any good. That is one reason I do come home, that's when I recharge.

Bill was awake and in a good mood when I got there. He had declined his bath after I left Wednesday so he was first on the list. He was very compliant and let them do the bath with no complaints. I talked to his nurse about the Ativan and she thought I wanted him to have it then, but I told her only after I left. She was agreeable with that, and when I told her I was leaving, she said that she would give it to him immediately. She was already doing his blood sugar check so she was at his room.

He worked really hard with occupational therapy doing arm exercises. He did them so well and so fast she started repeating them so that he got his full time of therapy. PT came late in the day and he said he wanted to just stay in bed. I told Chris that the bed had been in chair position for 3 hours, upright from when Ellen was working with him and he was OK with that, since he had been sitting up.

The therapists were both a little disappointed too that he was still on the vent since yesterday was CPAP and trach collar day. It is easier to move him that way. So, maybe by the end of the week-end he'll have caught up.

He stayed awake all day, not even a little catnap. So, he must have finally slept all of the Seroquel out of his system. Hopefully he got it early enough last night. That's another drawback of not being there when the shift changes, I don't get to talk to the night staff.

So, that's it for yesterday. A better day for Bill as far as being awake and cooperative, but the setback of the vent was disappointing. We'll see how today goes!