SITTING UP

Did not have an opportunity to blog yesterday. Our day stayed pretty busy and the evening was spent getting Ron settled in bed and of course....watching the San Antonio Spurs eliminate the Phoenix Suns....sorry all you Phoenicians out there....but I am a die hard Spurs fan....and why not ...they are the champs!......On to conquer New Orleans!!!! After reviewing his X-ray yesterday morning...it was determined that he had an increase if fluid buildup in his chest cavity and in his lungs. Dr. Smith advised it is because his kidney is not functioning properly ...and not clearing the waste...so it finds a place to settle in. She decided to place a chest tube into his side ..near the rib cage area. Once in place...it started to drain immediately. As of this morning ...he had put out approximately 1800 ml's Dr. Smith came by this evening and was really pleased...she said she will see how much he puts out overnight and hopefully, we can get it out in the morning. Ron had dialysis again yesterday morning....it end up being a very long and tedious run because the catheter kept clotting off. It was not a good run at all....they had to stop the machine and give him back his blood and then restart it again....the most fluid they were able to pull off was 2.5 -liters....it may seem like a lot...but now when you compare to previous runs of 5-6 liters. The night before he had had a bad run too. They could not keep the machine from clotting...the nurse tried from 4pm until 7:30pm and could not keep the run going...he had to receive a pint of blood that night, too...but she was only able to give him half the bag and then the machine clotted so bad that he actually loss 600ml's of blood that she could not return to him. I was not happy. Yesterday morning before his dialysis run...they changed out the catheter. But, it still caused problems. Today we started around 3:30pm ....and it has been a pretty good flow...he has 15 minutes left and his blood is starting to want to clot....hopefully, they can get the last 15 minutes out of him successfully. He had a pretty hard night ...he was in a lot of pain from the chest tube. Once all the numbing meds wore off...he really felt the pain and discomfort. They increased his pain meds today to help him cope with the pain. Dr. Smith him some Ladacain to help with the pain. It seemed to work. He still does not have much of an appetite yet...but I am trying to get him to eat....even if it is just an Ensure shake. Dr. Smith also said he will be off the antibiotics by the morning. I am not sure how long before he will be out of ICU but he is moving in the right direction. The infectious disease team signed off on him today. They feel the antibiotics have taken care of the microorganisms that showed up in his cultures and he is improving nicely. They were very happy to see how good he looked today. His color is back and alert. I still have not heard back on the outcome of his echo that was done on Monday. Dr. Smith did not even know he had had one done...surprise..surprise. She said she would take a look. Today's x-ray was "OK"...there is still some fluid there but hopefully, the chest tube will take care of it overnight. They removed 2 liters of fluid with dialysis today...so I am sure this will help. Two physical therapists came by to see Ron this morning and their timing could not have been better. He had asked me to put him in his wheelchair so he could get out of bed for a while. But, I had to explain to him just how weak his muscles are again. I told him there was no way he would be able to stand and get into the chair...so I asked if he would like to sit up on the edge of the bed and he was happy to try. So...when the physical therapists came into his room...I advised them that that is what he was wanting to do. They started out slow because they wanted to make sure his blood pressure would not bottom out. It dipped a little but then came right back up...he never felt light headed or dizzy. He ended up sitting up for an hour and I was able to give him a could shave. He seemed to like it. They should be by to work with him at least three times a day. They advised him to resume his exercises they taught him initially while in bed to start working on his muscle strengthening. Dr. Smith did say tonight she does not want to let him go until she sees he is walking as well as he did before we left before. She wants to be sure he will be safe at home with me. He was in agreement with her. He will do whatever it takes to get strong and walking again as before. God is great and continues to strengthen Ron and continues to heal him in such a miraculous way!