Thursday, December 17

The past couple of days have been busy!  Ventilator weaning continues and is getting pretty tough.  Using the muscles in his chest after a month of inactivity is incredibly painful for Bill and wears him out quickly.  He did not last very long on the trach collar last night and told me it was because he didn't get to rest at all during the afternoon.  That precipitated the last post regarding visitor control.  I want him to see his friends, but I want him to get off the ventilator even more.

This morning he got his permanent pacemaker and this is big news!  We are much closer to leaving the hospital now and I think it's safe to say that everyone is ready for the next step.  Apparently he asked the cardiologist for a user's manual to his new pacemaker which seems to have thrown the doctor for a loop.  I guess not that many people are interested in the inner workings of their pacemakers.  Dad recommends that we remind Bill that there aren't really any user-serviceable parts. 

This was the other big news for today.  The speech and swallow therapist came in to work with Bill while he was on the trach collar this afternoon and I asked her if I could bring him a cold one.  For those of you who don't actually know Bill: he was never without a Pepsi in hand.  I'm not sure how someone who drank that much soda never gained any weight, but he managed.  He requested that I bring more Pepsi tomorrow as well as real chocolate pudding.  They serve some kind of low-sugar, low-flavor chocolate pudding at the hospital and I don't blame him for not being too crazy about it.  He hasn't shown much interest in eating so I was thrilled to be sent out with a food request.  Anyone interested in pureeing some venison for him?