Progress

The picture says it all, doesn't it? Jerid is happy. Without the aid of drugs. Whew. I knew we'd get here. Everything isn't perfect, but it really feels like we're on our way.

Obviously today was a good day. Even better than yesterday. When I got to the hospital, Jerid had already gone for a walk with the physical therapist, Scott. They said it was really long and Jerid's pulse ox was excellent. He rested for a little bit and then we had lunch together. I brought sandwiches and chips from home.

After lunch, we had the usual slew of doctors and nurses come in. Our main doctor this week is Dr. Kotloff. All of the specialty doctors rotate and take care of the in-patients for 2 weeks at a time. Dr. Kotloff said that Jerid is doing really good. His creatinine level did go up more, but it wasn't as high of a jump as it's been taking. He's hoping that tomorrow it plateaus, or even starts coming down a little. His kidneys are still functioning well though. He's still outputting a good amount of urine and his potassium level is low. Doc also said that the blood cultures are still negative of pseudomonas. Yeah! So far so good.

The renal docs came in and said about the same thing, but also wanted a urine sample. The nurse practitioner came in and said that Jerid will probably be getting his last chest tube out tomorrow. Yeah again! That will leave Jerid with NO TUBES or HOSES in his body. Except for the midline, but that's nothing.

Pulmonary came in and was pleased with Jerid's progress. He had his highest score yet on his microspirometer. The microspirometer is a little machine that Jerid blows into as hard as he can and then holds the breath. It measures the breath inspired and expired by the lungs. Thus showing how well his lungs and breathing are doing. Jerid will be using this machine every day and recording it probably forever. It will be one of the first signs that there is a problem.

Then we took another walk. His longest yet. We found out that from one end of the hall to the other is 160 feet. Around the loop is another 220. So on Jerid's longest walk so far, he went 3 round trips up and down the hall, and once around the loop. Calculator anyone? That's a whopping 1,180 feet! Plus he's also getting to where he can stand up straighter. He couldn't before because of the pain, but he's fighting through.

Speaking of pain, there's some more progress. Jerid can take his Dilaudid (Pain med) up to every 3 hours. Today he went six hours before the nurse brought it to him. He didn't even ask! He still feels pain when he coughs, but obviously it's getting much better.

Another update that I should have put in sooner is that Jerid is no longer on the mecahnical ground diet. It's still hard for him to swallow dry foods though, so that cuts out most of the hospital meals. I spoke to a nurse today to see if there are any other options, but I don't expect to hear anything. Hopefully he'll be home soon and I can cook him anything his heart desires. Where are our mothers to cook for him?

The pantyhose are helping with the swelling in the legs. His feet hurt all day today though and yes, the grapefruit is still growing slightly. I asked the physical therapist what the biggest he ever saw was. A basketball. Damn!

For those of you who have requested to talk to Jerid on the phone: Jerid's biggest frustration is his voice (or lack thereof). Not only is it still a whisper, but it's actually a strain to speak. It's also very hard to hear over the phone. So it isn't that he doesn't love you or want to talk to you, it's just too hard. But I do promise to pass on any messages and report back whatever his sarcastic comment may be. The doctors still don't want to do the injection of collagen yet in his vocal cord. It would just open him up to possible infection, and since it's only an annoyance, they'll just wait.

I printed out the whole blog today and took it into Jerid. He had me read it to him. We're halfway through and he's loving it. Especially all the comments. You guys got quite a few laughs out of him so keep them coming.

We took one more walk before I left. That's 3 for today. Then he even stood at the sink and washed himself. Now that's progress!

Here's hoping that tomorrow is even better! Night night!