ANOTHER HURDLE

Ron had his catheter placed yesterday morning. They took him down around 8am and he was back in his room by 12 noon. Fortunately it was an early procedure and he was able to get back up to have lunch. He was pretty hungry by the time they brought him back up. This morning he woke up very sore in the area the catheter was placed...all the numbing medication had worn off....he was hurting quite a bit. They gave him some extra dilaudid...which seemed to help. Last night around 9pm...he started going into atrial fibrillation again....his heart rate kept going into the 118's ...they started him on amiodorone again via IV and then started him on oral medication of the same drug until they can verify if he is in cellular rejection. They have him on the schedule today to go down for another biopsy before they start him on the photopherisis treatments for the antibody rejection. We have some one in from the pacemake clinic running tests on his pacemaker right now. He seems to think that the atrial line is not capturing...thus possibly showing a false reading of atrial fibrillation. He brought a cardiologist in to review the reports printed to confirm this ...so at this point we are not sure what the outcome is as of yet. The kidney surgeon came in yesterday evening and took a look at the wound again...he still is not crazy about closing the wound but he went ahead and scheduled him for surgery on Tuesday tentatively...he will be back on Monday to check the wound one more time and determine if he wants to go in and close him up. Ron is still very uncomfortable once his dressing change is done...the wound throbs all the time and it is very tender when we clean out the tunnels and the large area of the wound ...even with heavy duty pain meds on board. This would be the main reason Dr. Gruesner would consider closing him up. Either way...whether we leave the wound open or close it...he still has a 50/50 chance of infection....Ron wants to close it and see how it goes. So, hopefully, on Tuesday this will happen. We had hoped for this week....but it is not up to us. I will let you all know what the turn out is with the pacemaker and possible biopsy today. He walked again today with his walker and me following close behind with the wheel chair the full length of the short hallway and back again into his room without taking a break....they said it was a total of 84 feet.....pretty awesome. The therapist said they will try to work on small squats next to get some more strength in the knees and thighs.