Yesterday was a better day than Tuesday, but it wasn't a stellar day. Bill was awake, but is very junky again. You can feel the stuff moving in his airways just by touching his chest. He did a lot of coughing, and got a lot of stuff out on his own, but he had to be suctioned a lot.

He was able to go on trach collar and Tori bumped his oxygen up pretty high until his sats and heart rate settled back down, then she slowly lowered it until he was on 40%, which has been the goal even when he was in ICU.

He did not do any speech therapy, mainly because he was coughing so much, so Lisa is going to try again today. He did do a little OT, moved the rings back and forth twice, and his sats dropped to the mid/upper 80s. That's normal for any exertion using your arms above your head and he does have to raise his arms to do that exercise. He really didn't want to do PT, but I made him. He did some leg exercises while still in bed and then she used the Sarah Steady to move him to his chair. His sats were all over the place by that time, upper 70s to mid 90s. They finally settled in the mid 90s, but it took him a longer period of time to recover.

Tori and I were both concerned about the amount and consistency of his secretions. They are very thick and again the yellowish brown nasty look. He's still on Robitussin and Mucomyst to thin them and that had been working up until yesterday. I think that is also what was going on Tuesday, they were thickening up making it hard to breathe.

They have decided not to change the inner trach to the shorter one. It's just a matter of making sure it is secure enough not to move. The lung nurses didn't like the way he sounded either and ordered another chest xray. They also brought in the lung dr. on call, Dr. Aswan who I hadn't seen before. I don't know if they are the ones who ordered a sputum sample, or if it was Janet from Infectious Disease. Those results won't be back for a day or two, I'm hoping it will show something today, but at least the xray will show what's going on. 

We're probably looking at a bronch today to get him cleaned out again. I looked back through my notes and he hasn't had one for a month, which is a new record, at least for this hospitalization. I'll find out in a couple of hours.

His hearing aids are finally here! I called FedEx again yesterday morning as soon as I got to the hospital, and I got the text that they had been delivered at 11:15. Emily picked them up on her lunch hour so they wouldn't be sitting in the rain and they are not charged and ready to go. Hopefully these will help since he said yesterday that he couldn't hear at all. His ears may need cleaned again, but I think it's more a combination of the oxygen/vent noises right at his head that is masking all other noise. And, just maybe, the TV volume can be lowered!

That's it for this update. We're supposed to have a wintry mix this morning and afternoon, at my prime driving times. Yesterday was torrential rain until I got out of Memphis, then it wasn't too bad except for wind. I even left my bag at the hospital. Only took my wallet, that fits in my back pocket, keys and phone. I also discovered that my shoes with the breathable upper are not good for walking in the rain. I was wet all the way home, and my weatherproof coat didn't do so hot either. But, pjs and warm robe did the trick as soon as I got home and got everyone fed.

My tablet is at the hospital, so if they do bronch today, I'll update while I'm there. And now, it's that time!