Bill was awake but agitated when I got there this morning and his nurse said that the night nurse told her he had not slept all night, even with his Xanax, Seroquel and Melatonin. Since his heart rate was up, we decided to give him his morning Xanax to see if he would calm down. 

I met Dr. Edwards in the hallway outside his room, and he said that he just hadn't progressed in Restorative Care like he had hoped and just kept going sideways. I actually corrected him and told him he went backwards and told him of some of the things he had lost. I had my hands full or I would have shown him the collage of pictures. He said we didn't have to decided right now, but needed to think about how aggressive we want to be and I told him that Bill had told me this morning that he wants to go home. I don't know if that will be an option now, unless something really turns around, but that's what he wants.

I was really surprised that Carrie and Devon from PT and OT came in to evaluate him. Carrie said that his calves were really tight and I told her what kind of therapy he had in Restorative. He did better with his arms with Devon and I told her what he had done upstairs. They said they would continue to work with him to at least get him to sit up. I told them that if they came and I wasn't there, he was not allowed to decline therapy. I told them he would tell them no if they gave him a choice, but to just do it.

He was doing a lot of coughing, which is a good thing. The filter and part of his tubing for the vent had to be changed twice. They were also suctioning a lot of thick stuff out again, yet Dr. Aswan from the lung group said he sounded clear. Now, he never sounds clear, hasn't in 
forever, so I don't know if he meant that as in he really did sound clear, or he sounded as clear as he ever does.

Dr. Threlkeld said that he was giving him mega doses of the Zerbaxa, and the lab report did come through today identifying pseudomonas as the bacteria. Of course, we didn't expect it to say anything else. Dr. Threlkeld said that the coronavirus is driving him crazy. People are calling him asking him if they should even go vote. He said yes, just be aware of your surroundings and told me to be aware when I walked to my car. He's more concerned with the number of flu cases and deaths.

Bill did finally sleep some and his numbers evened out although his heart rate never did go below 100. But, he finally got quiet and quit fighting the vent as much. He also kept telling me he wanted it out and I told him if it came out right now he would die and unless he was tired of fighting, it had to stay in. He told me that he did not want to die, but that didn't change his mind about wanting it out.

He's still having problems with knowing when he has to use the bathroom. The sensation is not getting through until after he has already started to go. So, about all we can do, unless they decide on a catheter, is keep him covered with extra towels so that he doesn't lay in/on wet pads and linen.

This isn't a lot of encouraging news, but it's the news, at least about Bill. But, our friend Pete got to go HOME today! Katie and I had a long talk this morning about personality changes due to steroids. It's driving her crazy, and if you've been reading since the transplant, you'll remember that Bill went through terrible "roid rage". There was also a man in the support group who spent thousands of dollars doing late night shopping on the home shopping network. So, she was going to hide the credit cards. She also knows that the hurtful things he's been saying are not the real Pete.

There was also sadness in the unit. Yesterday I met two ladies who didn't know how to get to the cafeteria. Since that's where I was going we walked together. One of them told me that her daughter had just had a heart transplant 2 days before. I told her how long Bill had had his and what his problem was now. Sadly, last night the young lady, and she was very young, coded and they lost her.

There was also a code blue today in the room right past Bill's. They were able to bring him back, but it was really tense for a while. Ironically, the room that Bill is in now had two patients pass away when he was in the unit last year, and the one that coded today is in the room Bill had been in until he went upstairs. That's enough to give you goosebumps!

Caleb came to see Bill today. He had been off for the week-end (he's in the National Guard so it may have been guard week-end) and he said that he's on the next 2 days and 1 of them should be in the unit and he would get Bill all cleaned up with a nice shave again. It was good to see him. He also wanted to know how Katie and I knew each other since he had seen us talking several times.

That's it for the hospital news. We have a tornado watch tonight until the early morning hours. I know that Kitty can sense something in the air, she's been really agitated this evening. Mouse is laying at the back door talking to the outside cats, but they also are sensing something going on. Hopefully we just get a nice thunderstorm or 2 like we did last night with nothing severe.

Goodnight for now!