Day 14 ~ Room 401, 8:30pm

Some celebrations:

   * Temperature - Today was the first day Bob's temperature has stayed consistently at or below 99F since Tuesday, 11/21! Not even 100F. He's still receiving IV antibiotics, so they must be finally kicking the bacteria to the curb.

   * Bye-bye, thickened clear liquids - The surgeon is happy with the activity of Bob's intestines (to quote Dr. Talbert: "We celebrate blow-outs around here!") so he gave the clear for Bob to try some jello, and if no coughing (which there wasn't) Bob could transition to a carbohydrate concentrated diet (good for the gut). After successfully not choking on orange jello, Bob invited me to have dinner with him tonight - the cafeteria brought him/us caesar salad, baked ziti and jello. And WATER. Bob was elated with his water and ice chips. It was a pretty good date.

   * Visitors and Phone Calls - Today was the first day Bob got to visit with visitors from the outside world (other than me and Jessica/Bruce). A few people saw him when he was in the ICU, but he didn't get a chance at all to interact, and most visitors from those stressful days he isn't able to remember. He was also able to talk to his nephew and brother on the phone tonight. Of course they've been horribly worried; they were both so relieved to chat with Bob. It was great to see him crack jokes and talk like himself again! 

Dinner date.

Water!

Talking to his nephew and brother.

Some lingering concerns:

   * Upper Right Lung - Still struggling with the mucus blocking the upper portion of Bob's right lung. They can hear coarseness/consolidation in that top lobe. They're giving him breathing treatments (Duoneb, which is a combination of Albuterol and Atrovent, two bronchial dilators) four times a day. He's using the inspiration spirometer and the flutter valve each hour, as well. Keeping a close eye on this.

   * Low Electrolytes - Potassium remains extremely low. They've been giving him IV electrolytes (via his Central Line) and oral potassium since early this morning, but every four hours when the blood draw comes back from the lab, K is still too low. This is holding him back a bit from progressing to the next phase, which is starting some physical therapy.

   * Not yet sitting up - Bob's intestines, although happily finally joined together and working again, are a bit out of whack. His innards don't know how much fluid to hold and how much to give away, which is likely causing a lot of the electrolyte loss. This is making Bob pretty weak still, so consensus was he needed another day of bedrest before they start sitting him up and moving him around. They don't want to risk him fainting or falling and injuring himself - can you imagine???