Yay! Yay! Yay! Jerid walked today!

The title says it all. Today was much better. Not perfect, but progress was definitely made. I have started giving Jerid his baths. On Sunday Jerid decided that he didn't like the guy who was giving him sponge baths. Jerid said that this large Jamaican guy manhandled him. So I got the job. Our first time was rough. I didn't do it correctly. Well, I can say that Annalise never complains when I bathe her. But Jerid and I bickered through the whole process. I told him that it was our first "post-op fight". He said that he didn't even know that we were fighting. Must be nice to be high all day. We've gotten the hang of it now and I give them to him daily. That's what we did first thing today.

Then we got him into his chair. Honestly, it takes about 45 minutes to move him the 4 feet from the bed to the chair. Their are tubes and hoses everywhere that need to be moved and manipulated and unplugged and untangled. Then we need to stop so Jerid can rest for a bit. Then we get him into the chair and the tubes and hoses are again rearranged. Good times. It's absolutely exhausting.

We saw one of the doctors that comes in everyday to check on Jerid. She said that she could hear a lot more air moving in his lungs. We talked about the bacteria (which is still OK) and his anxiety. She again reassured us that it is completely normal. She feels that most of it is being caused from sleep deprivation combining with the drugs and lack of nutrition. It will get better. Exercise will help. She asked if he was walking yet. No. She said that she'd like to see him do a little today. Jerid asked if it could wait until tomorrow. Thank God she said no. When she left, I asked Jerid why he wanted to put it off. He said that it was because when he did walk, he wanted to be able to really go for it. Oh silly Jerid. I told him that we had to take baby steps. If he only walked to the door that would be awesome.

So in came PT. It's hard to explain what they use to walk with, but basically it is a chest high walker on wheels with padded arms. The patient leans on it and rolls it as they walk. After about 10 minutes of the PT's getting all of the tubes and hoses situated we were ready. Up he stood and off he walked. Out the door a few steps and a short rest. Then all the way down to the nurses station. (About 5 doors down) Because so many people in the unit are having similar issues, the halls are crowded with people on walkers with IV poles and tubes trailing behind. They really need to get some traffic lights set up. Between the walkers and the nurses and the aids, there's going to be a major collision. Anyway, we walked back to the room and Jerid sat back down in the chair. Yippee! He did it! Of course when I told him how proud of him I was, he he said that he didn't do anything. Whatever!

After that, it was definitely nap time. We wanted to try to get him to walk again later, but it just didn't work out. This was a good start though. Now we're on our way.

The doctor put him on a new medication to draw the fluid out of his body faster. His body responed really well and within the first 2 hours I was there he peed 800 cc's. Wow! That's a lot of pee! Everyone says that once he gets the chest tubes out he'll be a new man. Less pain and it will be so much easier to get around. This medication should help get us there faster.

As always, tomorrow will be a better day. I can feel it. Plus, I'm going to shave him and wash his hair and that just screams fun. We just need to get him eating.

Still no sign of the Captain. I really hope he hasn't been released. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Thanks for all of the cards and good wishes. They've really been rolling in and the whole cork board in his room is covered. It's good for Jerid to know how many people miss him and are waiting to see him come home.