WEEKEND HAPPENNGS

The chest tube is still in. Ron's daily x-ray showed a very slight collapse of his left lung...very minor but they did not want to take any chances so they made adjustments to the chest tube to help re-inflate the lung. They were not too concerned with it...they said it was very minimal and that this is not uncommon to happen. Ron was battling the nausea much more yesterday. He could not finish his Ensure and only had two spoonfuls of yogurt. He tried to eat some ham and turkey with cheese and crackers for lunch..but he did not get very far. He skipped dinner all together. He was still having pain in his belly. We have been giving him Tums to see if it helps. This morning he did finish his Ensure but could not each much of his yogurt. He would not eat anything else. The nurse gave him two different types of nausea medicine and also gave him some Mylanta. But he eventually threw up. He just did not feel well this morning. He slept through lunch...he did not have much of an appetite. I went and had lunch with some friends....it was good to get away for a little while and visit with others. They also brought us a home cooked meal ...which I really enjoyed for dinner...I am just sorry Ron was not up for it....maybe tomorrow. He did manage to get another Ensure down tonight as well as some cranberry juice. Other than that....he just stuck with water and he did have some key lime ice cream earlier in the day. The doctors are going to have another CAT scan done on his stomach to see if there is anything going on that we should be concerned about. I believe they will test him for H-pylori again ..as he has had this before. They also had to remove his PIC line tonight...his arm started to get red and warm to the touch near the PIC line. He was not feverish but it was very concerning as to how irritated the skin was and the warmth around the site was not a good sign. They put in a new IV on his other arm and removed the PIC and sent it for culture. We did not get to see Thomas this weekend. It has been hard...this is two weekends in a row we have been without our little guy. Thank goodness for phones...I can at least talk to him every night before he goes to bed. Maybe next week we will get some time with him. Ron is still feeling pretty blue ...but I hope it will pass soon. I stood him up today from the bed for the first time since returning to the hospital. I helped him shuffle to his wheel chair. He was able to sit for about an hour before having to get back in bed. I was able to help him stand from the wheelchair as well. I was so pleased to see how easy it was for us to do this...considering the amount of time he was in bed. I assured him he would be walking very soon. He did so well today. Hopefully, this helped him feel a little bit better. I will do it again tomorrow...so that he can see that he can do this once again. The nurses wanted to help him but I knew he only trusted and felt comfortable with me helping him because we had already had our own routine of doing this at home....so I did it myself. We had a few more IV lines to deal with than when we were home...but we managed just fine. He had dialysis on Saturday but was given a break today. Having him dialyzed every day has made a tremendous difference on his weight. Ron's highest weight was 117 kg..which comes to almost 258 lbs. Right now..as of this morning..he is weighing 99 kilos...which is 218...which is a difference of 40lbs....all water weight! Quite impressive! The kidney is still very sluggish. He only had an output of approx. 120 cc's all day. We will look at his labs tomorrow to get a feel of where he is at...my guess...his creatinin will still be elevated. They will determine from there if they will continue with dialysis every day or possibly switch to every other day. If I could take him home now ...I would. I know he would be so much happier there. But, right now...until he is stronger and his kidney is working better...this is the best place for him.

For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. Psalm 27:28