Hey all, it has been a good day for John. He's still very uncomfortable from the ventilator tube, and has had a pretty bad headache all day. He's feeling very "full", since they had to put all of that gas in his abdomen for the surgery and it makes him feel bad. But overall he is doing great. I happened to be in there when the doctor came by, and the doctor said that he is doing excellent and is progressing very rapidly. He also said that today was probably the day he would feel the worst and should feel a little better each day. They were able to completely stop his epinephrine, they replaced his old picc line with a new one, and he sat up in a chair for about 3 hours! He was able to walk from the chair to the bed, and then back to the bed after sitting up for so long. He was exhausted but did very well. A little woozy and nauseous at first, but he stayed up. His nurse tonight said that she would get him up again tomorrow and maybe walk - then she clarified that by "tomorrow" she means around 4 am. So it's a whole different world here. They are going to pull a line from his neck tonight so he'll have one less tube dangling out of him. He got to eat a frozen fruit bar tonight but didn't want much due to that full feeling.
The plan for tomorrow, depending on bed availability and how he does tonight, is to move him to the step down room. But it isn't unusual for him to have some bad days, and they do push the patients quite a bit but are also very careful not to move them out of ICU if they need to stay. As soon as he moves out of ICU the meetings will start for me with the transplant coordinator to make sure that we are completely ready for him to come out of the hospital. The medicines he will have to take are critical and must be taken on an extremely strict schedule. We have already started the process of contacting the pharmacy to make sure that everything we need is available.
I really do appreciate all of the emails, text messages, posts to the blog, and all of the good thoughts from you guys. I try to fill John in on who has contacted us, and I hope by tomorrow he will be able to remember some of it! Just kidding, he's starting to come out of the anesthesia fog and I'm thrilled. I'm staying here again in the waiting room overnight, but I'm able to get enough sleep and it makes me feel better to be here.
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I would like to see them try to get you to leave! You are right where you need to be, doing just what you need to do. (How's your BP?) I love feeling your smile behind all the good reports. You are both wonderful examples of how to love, honor and cherish your spouse. Tell John no marathons around the hospital yet! Maybe you should hide his running shoes for awhile. Love, Suzette
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