Rob was discharged from the hospital around 11:00am today. The ride home was uneventful. After a brief rest, he is enjoying his first shower in 12 days. I am sure he’s going to have a great nap after this! He is still making steady improvements and feeling well. Since he is back to talking more, he is getting a little bit of laryngitis today. It might be best to reach him by text or email for the next day or…
I am pleased to report that we have reached the point where it is just a waiting game on the INR until Rob gets to come home. It has to reach 1.5, then he can be discharged. It has come up from a 1.1 to a 1.4. We are hopeful that he will get to where he needs to be tomorrow. Everything else is progressing well – blood levels are climbing on their own and his strength and energy levels…
I’m chalking today up as another day of improvement. Most tubes and dressings have been removed and Rob’s down to just an IV. His blood levels came up a smidge and the hope is that they will continue to come up on their own (without further transfusion). He is still working at getting some deeper breaths in and started nebulizing this morning in hopes that may help break things up a bit. Really, the only risk to his health today…
A little less tired today, Rob made great strides with his mobility. To this point, he was not allowed to get up and move without the assistance of a nurse (yup – they even put an alarm pad under him that went off if he got up). He had also been using a walker when he did his small laps around the unit. But after today, the walker is gone, he has been cleared to walk around the floor on…
Although still doing well, Rob was a little bit tired today. I don’t think he had a great night’s sleep last night. He was also given a blood transfusion due to low blood levels, so I am sure that lack of whatever also contributed to him feeling tired. He did work awfully hard to push through and is still making progress getting up to walk and doing is breathing exercises. The pain meds are being spaced further apart and it…
I am pleased to report that Rob’s chest tubes were removed this morning. Better news is that he didn’t experience any discomfort when they did it – a totally different experience than 25 years ago. And Rob wasn’t just stuck with me today. We were joined by his Mom, his sister, Terry, and our daughter, Keely. We all agree that he seemed to improve as the day wore on. He started out a bit tired and was running a bit…
Rob was moved out of CTU at dinnertime. He is holding up well, though utterly exhausted and still feeling the effects of the anesthesia. He’s kinda like that drunk friend you give a ride home – a little talking, a brief nap and then up talking again. There is talk of getting his chest tubes out tomorrow. Big prayers for that! For those who have messages into him, I still have his mobile phone until he is a bit more…
I hate to brag, but my guy can take a lickin’ and keep tickin. Maybe the nurses in the CTU say this to all the guys, but they told me he is the rockstar of CTU – ready to start climbing that hill already. So far he has gotten out of bed and into a chair, had a plate of eggs, called his Mom and, of course, exhibited his sense of humor numerous times. Understandably, he has a lot of…
The good news is his breathing tubes are out. The bad news is that they had to get him enough out of a haze to do it, so he’s in a bit of pain from his chest tubes (yes – he’s got one more set of tubes to want removed). However, now that the breathing tubes are out, they can give him some pain meds. Prayers those kick in quick and he can get some rest.
I was able to see Rob for about 5 minutes at 5:30pm. He was still on the breathing tubes and being kept asleep. His color was good and he pretty much looked like his old self. The only exception was a fat lip, due to pressure from breathing tubes while they used some sort of imaging machine (CT? but my tired mind might not have heard that right) during or at the end of the surgery. At the point that I got in…