Yesterday was a much better day! Bill was awake when I got there, after another drive in the dark mist and fog and said he was feeling much better. He looked much better and the nurse said that he had a good night.

Stephanie came in and said that everything looked and sounded good and to start weaning him off the vent again. They are going to do it slowly, building up to him doing all of the breathing. He's still on 60% oxygen and I think respirations were at 14.

Chris from PT came in and got right to work. He's a little Scot with lots of energy. For safety, until they really get working with him, they are moving Bill with a sling instead of letting him stand and walk. Maybe that will happen when he's off the vent. As he was getting all of that ready, Miss Bettie came in to suction Bill as he was doing a lot of coughing. He actually suctioned his mouth himself, so he was getting some stuff up above the trach, but she went deep. She also changed his cannula and was surprised that it wasn't really clogged. And Laura was in to give meds. So it was quite a busy time. But by 9:30, he was in his chair, had been medicated and was watching TV.

I don't remember if I told you that Dr. Edwards changed his formula again, to one that is typically used for patients with kidney failure. It's lower in potassium and he things the other formula was causing his potassium to go up. The dietician came in and said that she was lowering his rate from 60 mL to 40 as that was the recommended dose. She said this is a much denser formula and she didn't want him to have any problems digesting it.

Janet came in and said the urinalysis showed that he had a yeast infection. This of course isn't uncommon since he's been on so many antibiotics. But, the bloodwork didn't show anything out of the ordinary.

Polly from cardiology make a quick stop in and Dr. Oktied (and I'm spelling his name wrong, but can't remember now just how it is spelled) has raised his insulin to account for the new formula. They don't make a diabetic form of it, so it's just adjusting the insulin.

Bill stayed in his chair until a little after 3:30 when I left. He thought he needed to use the bathroom so they were going to put him on the bedpan. He also hadn't had his trach site cleaned and she wanted to do that when he was laying down. The wound care nurse was also going to come after he got back into bed to make sure he wasn't developing any skin breakdowns.

He's still asking me to take the "circle" off of his neck. Usually telling him that's where his oxygen is going works to soothe him, but not yesterday. I told him if we took it off he would die and he just said "fine, just let him die". But, a few minutes later, even though I could tell by the look on his face he was still perturbed, he was back to himself. When I left he was actually smiling and even gave me a kiss!

It looks like I won't have to drive in the rain and fog this morning, but it has gotten cold again. Oh well, I can take that. Coming home the rain was really heavy at times and everything around was black...and it was only 4:30! At least it kept my speed down!

All from yesterday, I'm not taking the computer today either so it will be tonight or tomorrow before this gets updated again. Unless of course something happens and I'll use my tablet.
Have a great day!