Yesterday was another day of not being able to connect to the internet at the hospital. I wasn't the only one having problems. Bill's nurse told me she was having trouble. I don't know if she was using the same network I was, but she said she couldn't get one either. Mike from respiratory told me they only have so many slots and during the week most of those are taken up by business offices for the hospital. But, it it's supposed to be one for hospital guests, why would they be using it? Anyway, you don't want to read about the internet issues.

Bill was awake when I got to the hospital and, while not agitated, he was confused. He told me he didn't know where he was. Now remember, he had been somewhat sedated when he was brought down from Restorative Care (more on that in a minute) so it was understandable he wasn't sure of where he was. All of his numbers were good, but he was doing a lot of coughing. The good thing about the coughing is that he was getting the junk up and into the vent tubing and filter. He was suctioned by his nurse Meredith and by Mike the respiratory tech and they were both pleased that he was coughing the stuff out instead of just to the edge of the cannula.

When Meredith was going over his meds, she was reading out the dosage of each one. Most of the time, they just say there have been no med changes and ask if I want them called out. When she got to the Xanax, she said it was .5 mg. I asked her about that and said for his age, he should only be getting .25 mg. So, we decided to hold it since he didn't seem agitated. And then we started looking back.

On Thursday he got his morning and afternoon doses of Xanax, plus his Seroquel to sleep. His nurse Serena said that he just wouldn't settle down so she gave him his night Xanax and either the melatonin or dulaudid. Then Friday morning when I got there he got his morning Xanax as he was still agitated. When he got to ICU, he was given Versed and Fentanyl for the bronch, and they said he got a little extra because they were going to do the deep lavage with saline so they wanted him to stay really sedated. Then, he got his afternoon Xanax, and his nightly Xanax, Seroquel and Melatonin! The poor man was drugged out of his mind! No wonder he was asleep and could barely be roused!

Yesterday he didn't get any of his daytime Xanax. He didn't get agitate and he stayed awake all day. He watched TV and whether it actually registered on what he was watching, I don't know. He also responded to questions and asked a few questions. He saw a new doctor standing outside he door, getting an isolation out of his cart to go into another room, and he didn't really like that. It was like "those are for my room not just for anyone who wants one".

He didn't go to sleep until about 3:30 and I left shortly after that. We were having some weather coming in and I wanted to be off the highway. I made it home before the storms came, but the wind that preceeded it was something else. My hands actually hurt from gripping the wheel and a semi was caught by a gust of wind and blown into my lane and I had to hit the shoulder. Close call, but both of us kept the vehicles under control.

I still haven't seen a lung doctor since Dr. Sheikh after the bronch. I've seen Dr. Smith in the hospital so he may be the opposite of Dr. Edwards who rounds late at night and he rounds early in the morning. Dr. Threlkeld said that some gram negative rods have grown from the sputum sample from Friday, but still nothing from the bronch cultures. He's looking for a backdoor to get "down and dirty and cheat with" drug. But, Bill's responds well to the Zerbaxa so for now that's the one he's using.

Dr. Muir is puzzled by the blood loss. He told me that his hematocrit was in the upper 20s earlier in the week which is great. They want it above 25. But, Saturday it dropped to 22. There are no active bleeds they can find. They are not suctioning blood, and the little they did get they attributed to the bronch. He doesn't have blood in his stool or urine and when they check his feeding tube (they pull back so formula to see how much there is to see if he's digesting it well) and there hasn't been any there, so it's not a GI issue. So, he's puzzled and wondering where it's going, or why he stops making it.

Dr. Yaranov was concerned by some of his heart rhythms yesterday and had his electrolytes checked, but all was well with them so nothing needed to be done. I don't think the rhythms were anything to really be concerned about and could also be his heart recovering from all the sedation.

I don't know what the plan is now. I guess I'll find something out after rounds today. I do know he's still too sick to leave the unit. Now, and I hope it's just still the sedation, he's not able to tell he needs to urinate until after the fact. The external catheters don't stay on him well and I don't think they want to use a Foley catheter at this time, so they are just getting extra padding and towels to try to keep it off his skin as much as possible.

I will admit I was scared Saturday when he wouldn't wake up and really wondering if this was the end of his long fight. I was really glad to see those tired blue eyes yesterday. He told me he's not ready to stop fighting, and that may be, but I can tell his body is just wearing out and I don't know how much longer it can keep fighting. But, his will is still strong.

That's it for today. It's time for me to get going and it's going to be a rainy day. I'm not taking the laptop today, but my tablet is there and I'll try to get it to connect if I need to post during the day.