Hello? Can I speak to Einstein?

Today started out very early. 3:30 am to be exact. I was in a deep sleep when my cell phone rang. Of course when I saw Jerid's name on the caller ID, panic overtook me. I answered and there was no response. "Hello? Hello? Baby, I need you to talk to me." I shouted in the phone. No answer. Click. Phone went dead. You can imagine the fear. So I called him back and he answered. He told me that he was just confused. He was using the alarm on his phone to wake himself up so that he could push his pain medicine button. He swore that he was fine and we hung up. I went back to sleep. Much later today, he explained. Apparently Jerid was dreaming that he needed to ask Einstein some questions. Yes, Albert Einstein. They were apparently friends so he called him on the phone. Unfortunately, he dialed my number by mistake. Jerid is definitely going to lose his phone privileges if he keeps this up.

Besides that, our day wasn't too bad.

We had a little blip. The doctors found bacteria in Jerid's blood. They can't be sure, but they think that it's from his incision wound which is seeping. It's being cleaned out a couple of times a day and they're going to try a new antibiotic. This is not as easy as it sounds though, as Jerid is allergic to 5 families of antibiotics. But they're going to try to find one that works. We saw 2 infectious disease doctors and it was just like House (the TV show, which we love). They were standing around trying to solve the mystery. Very exciting. They're not too worried yet, and worse case scenario is that Jerid will have to be desensitized to one of the antibiotics which he's allergic to. This would involve a stay back in the ICU. As always though, we just have to wait and see.

We finally got to meet Dr. Pocchotino, The lung surgeon who actually did Jerid's transplant. He's been on vacation, and actually came in during to do the surgery. He was very nice and is very pleased with Jerid's progress. This was the 5th lung/liver transplant that he's worked on, and he said that Jerid was out of the ICU faster than any of the others. He's progressing very well and wants to get 2 more of the chest tubes out so that Jerid can start walking.

Jerid had McDonald's for lunch today. The hospital food was just too unbearable. He's still on mechanical soft and as you can see in the photo, it's really not fit for a dog. So McDonald's it was. A cheeseburger and french fries. And thanks to Ronald and the laxatives, we had to rush Jerid to the pot. Again. I picked up the new issue of Car & Driver for him and it sits next to the bedside toilet. The aid who came in to empty the pot asked if we'd like a can of air freshener. Definitely. That's the Jerid we know and love.

Captain Crazy pants had some visitors today. I got to watch him show them the monitors that he likes to stare at. As usual, he was in fine form. Jerid's other neighbor is named Joeseph Jackall. But when the nurses talk to him it sounds like they say Mr. Jeckyll. So we call him Dr. Jeckyll and are waiting to see Mr. Hyde. He's a very loud old man so you can hear all of his phone conversations. Today he was telling someone that he's bored as hell. (See how exciting the hospital is? The fun never stops.)

Jerid and I have now asked for Rice Krispies 6 times. Still no sign of them.

Jerid's been getting bored when I'm not there so we had the TV channels turned on. Maybe he'll stop making phone calls to dead people.

We learned how to work the insulin machine thingy that Jerid will have to use at home. A very exciting lesson. Obviously the nurse is used to teaching elderly people how to do it because she was VERY thorough and was extremely impressed with how quickly we caught on. Seriously, it's less complicated than an alarm clock.

That's it for the day. It was a Sunday so it was slow. Jerid just called me to say goodnight. I asked him if he was going to sleep now and he said that he already was. OK then.

As you can see, I've taken some pictures. They're not the best since all I have is my camera phone, but at least they'll give you an idea of what things look like. I peppered them throughout the blogs so scroll down to past ones to see them.

Night Night.