Tuesday, March 17

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sorry I did not update last night.  I started back teaching full days yesterday and today, so I was too exhausted last night.  My computer does not work on their WiFi at Regency... something about my Vista and their Cisco system isn't compatible, so I can't update from the hospital. 

Ron had a pretty rough day yesterday.  It started when he did not sleep well Sunday night, and then at 3:00 a.m. when he finally was asleep, he says they got him up to give him a bath.  He was standing beside the bed for the bath, and apparently pulled a muscle in his back.  His right shoulder was still a little ouchy from the pulled muscle he had there on Saturday, but the back muscle was much worse pain.  It hurt terribly just to breathe.  He had sort of a panic attack at that point.  They got him back to bed and gave him his medications.  When the day shift came on, the respiratory therapist was ready to do the 4 hours of bi-pap, 4 hours of vent that he had done all weekend, but Ron couldn't do the breathing well enough because he hurt.  He told the physical therapist when she came in that he couldn't do anything because he hurt too badly.  That was very disappointing to him because he had waited all weekend to get back to work with the physical therapist. 

They did do the swallowing test with the blue dye on Monday.  He had some applesauce and jello with the dye.  They put a scope up his nose and down to his throat to watch while he swallowed.  Everything went down the correct tube, so they tried a graham cracker and milk, and he swallowed just fine!  :)  He had no blue dye in the tube when they suctioned his lungs.  So, today he got breakfast, lunch, and supper trays.  They also had the tube feeding for support as needed.

Dr. Tita's nurse practitioner came to see him Monday evening.  She switched him from Percocet to Toradol (sp?), an anti-inflamatory for the muscle pulls / spasms.   His numbers all looked  good.  Bp was 122/57, heart rate, 101; respirations were 24-26.

They let him sleep last night, and he felt somewhat better today.

Today, he did get to work with the PT, and sat up in the chair for 2 hours.  He was on bi-pap mode for 2 1/2 hours in the morning, and again in the evening.  He was able to talk for about an hour while the machine was on talk mode this evening.  He really likes that!  Apparently the Percocet caused constipation, so he was feeling too full to eat his breakfast (he did eat 1/2 a slice of bacon and drank some juice), lunch, or supper.  They have to get things moving again, so had suspended the tube feeding for a while this afternoon.  His blood pressure was down again today, like the other day, so they started IV fluids, and bp was back up OK this afternoon.  His fluid output was not keeping up, so he had to be catheterized again this evening.  (Boy, he was NOT happy about that!)  I think the urologist / kidney Dr. will be consulted tomorrow to see what the problem may be there.

He pulled another muscle in the left chest today when rolling over in the bed, and it was hurting from his left shoulder down across his chest.  They did another EKG just to make sure it was not his heart, and apparently it was OK.  He hurt all over for a while, shoulder, back, and stomach!  But after his evening Toradol, he felt better, and breathed on the bi-pap mode for a couple hours this evening.

He was watching "Wild, Wild West" episodes on his DVD player when I left tonight. 

Baby steps, but he IS making progress!

Thank you for all the support, visits, cards, encouragement, and prayers.

Love,
EJ