It was a broken night to say the least. Bill slept most of the night and gave his nurse a hard time at one point when she came in and had to wake him. I finally got up about 4. The couch was not comfortable to sleep on and the room was freezing cold. All of that aggravated my hip and toe and I was in pain. So, took a pain pill first thing in the morning. Bill was also awake and winked at me! He also tracked me across the room as I was going to the bathroom. I think now that it confused him for me to be there in the night last night.

He was laying so crooked in his bed this morning that he could almost touch the floor with his feet. So when the day shift came on Albert, the PCA we've had for the last 3-4 days came in and got him resettled in bed, and then brought me ice for my Artic cup.

Bill was still breathing very fast and his oxygen was in the low 90s. But, it was his heart rate that was most concerning. It was in the 120s to 130s. He was also warm to the touch. He looked at me and mouthed "help me" and it breaks my heart that I can't help him! I asked him if he wanted to just stop everything and see what happened and he didn't indicate one way or the other what he wanted to do. I think he was just too busy trying to breathe.

His morning xanax, suctioning and cannula change didn't make much of a difference in his breathing or heart rate. Tori, the respiratory tech and I both thought he needed to be put on full vent again so that he wouldn't have to work so hard. The day time tech, Wendy, did put him on full vent after talking to Stephanie.

Janet from infectious disease said she finally convinced Dr. Threlkeld to re-start Zerbaxa, a really powerful antibiotic. She also said that his white count was 22,500. He should start to feel better in a couple of days, we hope.

When Stephanie came in she tweaked the vent some, since he was still having problems. She also said that when the antibiotics kicked in and he was feeling better, she would get him fast-tracked with weaning, doing it a little faster, but not so fast that he's back and forth a lot. It wouldn't really surprise me for them to put him on CPAP at night each time. I think we'll be adding a CPAP machine to our inventory of medical equipment.

He fell asleep about noon and I could tell that he was really sleeping. His numbers were also starting to stabilize. He got the first dose of Zerbaxa and I don't think it works quite that fast, but his numbers were looking pretty good. 

Chris from PT popped in and said that he had talked to the nurse and respiratory and he thought it would be best to just let him rest today and maybe tomorrow he'd be able to get to his chair. He hasn't been out of bed now since last Wednesday.

I came home about 1:30. Bill was OK with that and asked if I would be back in the morning. I told him I would. Usually he asks if I'm coming back that night and I always tell him no, so that's why I think it really confused him for me to come back last night. But, he was good with me leaving and was going to sleep some more. His respirations were still in the upper 30s, but his oxygen level was 99 and his heart rate was down to 107.

I didn't see anyone from cardiology before I left, but I know that Kayla, his nurse had let Dr. Edwards know the situation. I told Kayla I was heading home to sleep and she said she would call if I was needed.

That's it for today. It's not quite 6 and I've eaten, fed the animals and have my pjs on. I'm going to try to stay up a bit longer, but if I can't who cares, there's no one here but me and the cats!