It's almost time for me to think about leaving and I've just been putzing around. It's a bad allergy day and my eyes don't want to focus, even as they quit watering. I can tell that the sinus drainage down my throat is thick and nasty and I'm still tired. But, since it's Saturday and the lighter traffic helps, leaving later is OK.

Bill had another great day yesterday. He was switched from vent to  trach collar at 8:30 and went to the recliner at 11. He had just gotten back into bed at 2:30 when Dr. Sheikh came in and he was so happy with the length of time for the last 2 days I thought he was going to do a dance. He wanted to try for 10 hours on trach collar if he could do it, but that didn't happen.

About 4, after his bath, he started coughing and Stacy started suctioning and finally he coughed up a nasty looking piece of "something". I didn't go look at it, but as it was laying at the end of his cannula, before the final cough, it was reddish brown and looked like a pretty solid little ball of stuff. After that he was able to stop coughing, although his breathing was still sounding pretty junky and his sats were low. Stacy and I agreed that he needed to go back on the vent and Chad from respiratory just happened to walk by the window so he came in and swapped him over. His breathing eased up and his sats started coming up. But, even though it was hard on Bill, it was all good that he got that junk up himself! That was some good coughing and exercise for his lungs.

Janet from Dr. Threlkeld's office told me that the patient from across the hall on the 4th floor went home Thursday...with a vent. She will be on the trach collar 12 hours and the vent 12 hours, or, trach collar during the day, vent at night. That is an option for Bill, should he ever get strong enough again to come home. 

Therapy did ask me Thursday if I had been trained in range of motion exercises and I told her no. I also told her that I can't lift his legs to do them. Even though he's no bigger than a minute, those dead-weight legs are heavy until he can make the muscles move. She said he needs more than 1 or 2 days of therapy, and I've been telling everyone that for months now! But, again, what do I know, I'm only his wife!

His urine was finally a nice yellow yesterday afternoon and Stacy told me that they finally have the flush set at a good rate. It was running much too slow which is why it was staying bloody. And Dr. Edwards wanted a picture of his peg site. He, Bill, said it was really sore yesterday and Kellye had come in to check his IV line and looked at it and it was really red and angry. Chelsea wasn't really happy that another nurse was in her room, but Kellye told her that she was busy when the IV was beeping and then she saw that his gown was wet. By the time Dr. Edwards asked about the site, Stacy had cleaned it and bandaged it with tape and she said it was only a little red. But, it had already been covered by gauze by Kellye, so she didn't see that it was more red than it had been. So, we'll see what happens there. It is draining more again now.

He's off all antibiotics except the Bactrim right now, so we'll watch his white count. His hematocrit was just under 25, so they were going to see what it did with labs this morning before giving him any blood, but he'll probably get some today. His kidney function has evened out so Dr. Morris was happy with that.

That's all I've got. It's been cooler here the last couple of days. And tomorrow, starting sometime in the middle of the night tonight, rain is supposed to come in with strong to severe storms breaking out, just about the time I'll be leaving the hospital. Another fun drive home! See you tomorrow!