Yesterday was another turning point! Bill was more awake yesterday morning and shook his head no when I asked if he was feeling any better. He was still squeezing hands and feeling pain, really feeling pain, and we'll get to that in a minute.

He was breathing a little fast and his heart rate was in the 110-120 range. He also sounded a little wheezy. Tyler from respiratory came in and change his inner cannula and all the tubing and filters and that made the wheezing go away. He had suctioned him and didn't get much, so everything must have been sitting on top of the trach.

Dr. David (da-veed) came in and told Tyler he wanted to try a breathing trial! This is part of the process to get patients off vents. Now, this is for a man who was near death 24 hours prior. He told him to let it go 30 minutes and if he couldn't tolerate it to switch it back. Tyler and I both looked at each other, but when he came back into the room to do finish his breathing treatments, he switched him to CPAP mode and Bill didn't even last 10 minutes before his breathing sped up. Tyler stood right beside him and switched him back to vent mode. 

I don't have a problem with getting him back off the vent, but I think it needs to be done in a different way. My opinion, and what do I know I'm only his wife, is to change the vent setting back to volume control from pressure contol to let him feel the extra oxygen.Then put him in CPAP mode so that the pressure keeps the airway open. But, Bill is one that you have to tell that the machine is not doing the breathing, that he has to do it all. That usually settles him into the rhythm of breathing again. So, I'll bring that up this morning.

His PEG site was draining really badly again and Dr. Threlkeld looked at the site and his stomach around it and said he didn't think it was infected, just irritated. But, within 1 1/2 hours, he had soaked through the drain sponges, 2 abdominal pads, his gown, the pillow his arm was resting on and the bed pad and sheet! Luckily, Yolanda was his nurse again yesterday and she got every towel and washcloth out of the closet and was having to hold pressure on it, the same way you would for copious bleeding. She was also using antiseptic wipes to clean where the skin is breaking down from the bile and bleeding. That's where the pain came in. I was kept busy holding Bill's hands out of the way, and pushing the call button at Yolanda's request to get the charge nurse in with the "magic phone" that has all of the numbers for the on-call doctors.

She got Dr. Gessller (and I need to check the spelling, I'm going by what I think I heard him tell Yolanda when she was putting in the order for the xray.) from GI to come and look at it and he said he didn't think it was even in his stomach! So, the tube feeds were stopped and a special GI xray was done. They did a regular xray first and then pushed some dye through his tube and did several more from different angles. This should show the position of the tube. There weren't any results from that before I left yesterday, but I doubt anything was done last night because it would need consent and Bill can't give it and they didn't call for oral consent, so we'll probably find out today.

After that Bill went to sleep, and he slept, not just "out". His heart rate dropped below 100, his oxygen was in the mid-90s, blood pressure was good, maybe a tad low, but above 100 and his respirations were 23. He looked very peaceful and was finally cool to the touch. So, as awful as it was to see that junk bubbling out of him, it may have been what was causing all of the recent problems.

Dr. Morris thinks that it was the cause of the kidney number fluctuations over the last few days. They were stabilizing again and he will continue to follow to see how they do after whatever is done about the tube is done.

His urine has been clear for the last 2 days, with no blood at all, so they may be able to put the flush on hold. Dr. Greenberger didn't say how long to keep the flush going.

The nurses have been loving the mask holders and are taking them as fast as I can get them done. I braved Walmart for the first time in a month to get more buttons and Yolanda said she bought me some yarn over the week-end. Someone used a 3D printer and made some plastic holders, but some of the ones who have used them say that the points hurt their neck some.

I'm going to have an interesting commute this morning. There is construction that started after I went through yesterday right where 2 major highways come together and it was backed up yesterday afternoon on both highways. I meant to look at the map yesterday when I got home to see if I can just take one of the frontage roads all the way through and by-pass it. I think I can, I'll let you know! Otherwise I may be sitting it traffic all morning!