Yesterday started out well with Bill awake and aware and flirting with Mikala with double winks. But, it soon went downhill.

There's no real way to describe the leaking from around his peg tube. The fluid, whatever it is, just runs out. We stood there and watched it as we were trying to change the gauze pads. It's not the gray goopy stuff anymore, it's clear and pretty thin and we could see it running down his stomach. As Mikala tried to get more gauze packed around it, every time she pushed, more poured out, and then we could hear air escaping. It was all very strange. Dr. Nara had left a note in his chart that she would be back on Monday, which kind of told Mikala not to call her. But, she said if it were a true emergency she would call for whoever was on call for the week-end.

During his bath it was discovered that not only was his right foot extremely swollen again, but his genitals were swollen. I showed Dr. Naseer the kidney doctor on this week-end and he said about all that could be done to alleviate that was to roll a towel and elevate his scrotum. So that was done. Bill wasn't complaining that it hurt, but I don't know how it couldn't be. His left hand was somewhat swollen, but not as bad as it had been. However, his left arm is "weeping" in a couple of places from being so swollen earlier.

After his bath he seemed to be more comfortable and went to sleep and slept most of the day again. When his belly was checked to see if he needed the gauze changed, it was dry! We could still hear air escaping periodically, but no fluid.

Every doctor who came in was told about these new presentations, but none of them really had anything to say. Dr. Threlkeld said he would check with GI to see what they thought. And since he told me that he doesn't trust many people, but he trusts Dr. Nara, he'll talk to her. And since I don't trust many people anymore, I do trust him. He has always followed through when he says he's going to do something.

His urine was quite bloody again in the morning, but when Mikala changed the flush bag and emptied the collection bag, it all started running clear. She thought there was just some sediment that had settled in the bottom of the bag from before that got mixed in. It will be interesting to see what it looks like today. Dr. Greenberger didn't say how long to keep the flush running and he hasn't been by for a few days now, so we may have to wait until Dr. Edwards is back on Monday. Dr. Shirwany is reluctant to make any changes to things unless it is one of his actual patients, so we'll wait for Dr. Edwards.

His kidney numbers have stabilized as far as his creatinine goes and he's still getting the daily dose of Lasix. But, he may need more than what he's getting to pull more of this fluid off.

In the late afternoon, when we could tell he was really relaxed, his blood pressure started dropping. There was a 20 point difference than the pressure taken with a cuff and the pressure measured from the ART line. Mikala tried adjusting different things to get them to even out more, but it just wasn't happening, so she reluctantly re-started the Levo. It had been restarted in the night too. Chris, the night nurse said that when Bill was really relaxed and sleeping his pressure started dropping so he had restarted it. And then it stayed up in the morning so Mikala turned it off. So, we'll see when I get there.

His other numbers were good and Dr. El Hadad is making no changes to the vent settings.

That's about it for yesterday. I was quite tired when I got home. I'm finding that the days where I just sit and knit with him sleeping tire me out more. On the days he's awake more  and engaged in the TV, even if it's just watching Animal Planet all day, I still have a little energy left when I get home. Yesterday it was all I could do to feed the cats and feed me. I went to bed at 8 and only woke up once at 11:30 to go to the bathroom. After that I didn't wake up again until 4:45 when the alarm went off. And here we are, nearly an hour later, and I've fed the cats and had 1/2 cup of coffee. So, I need to get my coffee finished and start getting dressed and ready to go, although I don't need to leave as early now. I'm still surprised by the amount of cars on the road, especially out of state cars, but it has dropped off. I'm also surprised that I'm still getting into the hospital. They are calling up to the unit each time now, but they always tell them that he's waiting for me to get there and to send me on up. I am getting tired of wearing a mask all the time I'm there. I told Mike, the respiratory tech that I'm starting to live for lunch, when I can take it off!

Stay safe everyone!