Bill stayed on trach collar all night Monday night! I was pleasantly surprised to see that when I walked into his room. His nurse Kayla said the same thing. We both expected to see him back on CPAP from overnight.

When Stephanie came in she wanted to put the speaking valve on. She suctioned him and then he had to pee, and apparently he took too long for her to hang around. She just gave the respiratory techs the instructions to try it.

He still slept most of the morning. I don't know if it's too tiring for him, doing all of the breathing on his own now. Although he was doing it all on CPAP, the machine was keeping his airway open at all times. And now he's just breathing normally.

PT came about 1 and he did his exercises and then got in this chair. His numbers dropped some and they had to bump his oxygen up some to help him recover. I don't know what it was set on. I know on the machine it was 45%. For those that are interested 24% is room air, or normal air that we all breathe. I also know they are shooting for 40%, but the concentrator here at home makes 80%. So that's a little confusing.

After he was in his chair the valve was tried again and it was a huge failure. He went straight into a full panic attack. When his heart rate reached 120 we took it off and I just had to talk him down. It was too early for his Xanax so that was the only thing to do. I just got in his face and told him he was in panic mode and to slow his breathing down. He finally calmed down and went to sleep again. I don't know how he did it, but he slept for nearly 3 hours with his chin on his chest. 

When OT came in to see if he wanted to work, we decided to wait until today when the other therapist that he's been working with will be here. She's the really perky one that can get him to work when the other one can't. His nurse also came in and could tell that it was Xanax time. He kept trying to tell me something and I finally made him write it and he said "I am confused". I don't know if it was just because we woke him up so fast, or what it was. He said he didn't know where he was which is somewhat concerning. He got his Xanax and then got back into bed. Kayla saw what he had written so she may have given him a little longer assessment with his meds at 5 after I left. They didn't call so I guess everything was OK. He did seem more himself when I left. He had kept asking me where he was going when they put him in his chair so maybe he was confused thinking he was having some kind of procedure.

He may get a little excursion today. They are installing monitors of some kind in each room. They've done all of the hallway prep and I noticed that the lady across the hall was sitting down by the windows all morning in her chair. The head nurse and one of the workers kept looking into Bill's room during therapy so they may have been checking on when to do his. But he was having therapy then so they don't want to interfere with that. It will be interesting to see how they do it because technically he's not supposed to "mingle" with other people since he's still in isolation protocol. But, I got to thinking, the lady across the hall is also in isolation. He does have a different mask he can wear. I guess we'll find out today.

That's about it for the update. This is just a little aside. I've seen lots of things on all of my travels, from accidents to beautiful rainbows and sunrises. But the other day I saw something that I had only seen in pictures. I passed, and then was passed, and then I passed again a Maserati! I had only seen them in pictures. And you know what, I wasn't really impressed. To me it was just a car. I was more impressed with the Rolls Royce we see occasionally at Mayo, or the Lamborghini I saw once in Florida. I just thought it was interesting that it looked just like an ordinary car, nothing special. The interior might have been, but I don't think I would want to pay the price tag for just the name on the back!

Wonder what I'll see today?