Great news finally

GOOD NEWS!  the first good news that we've had. 

All through the night, he just seemed "off".  I thought it was about the chest tube filling with liquid by being blocked but apparently, it was the chest tube itself bothering him. 

The nurse did a fabulous job of caring for him last night and I slept for an hour here and there.  By morning, he was no longer struggling to breathe.  We took him off oxygen and I was concerned as his breathing got "funky" but it eventually settled. 

The docs came in one by one delivering GOOD news!  He got more platelets today.  The Hematology Doc thinks that his bone marrow MIGHT just turn around after all the inflamation is gone.  (I haven't really discussed this but Manny's bone marrow got all wacky... he is having myelocytes and metamyelocytes.  It's related to a leukemia that may have been triggered.  NOT saying he has Leukemia... but his body is fighting like it does.  Sometimes this is reversed on it's own and other times it needs intervention ... only time will tell.) 

Infectious Diseases doc says the blood cultures are STILL negative! 

The CRP (C-reactive protein) is down from 18 to 5. (It should be under 1 but we're getting there.) 
The chest xray showed no more pulmonary edema (pooling) but showed diffuse "wetness" which is likely the start of pneumonias ... but we're not going to let THAT take root.

In fact, his chest xray was so great, they took out the chest xray.  I got to assist.  A bit creepy if you ask me but I think I could be a surgical nurse/doc so it didn't bother me until I saw his face.  (Grimace).  I told Dan about it and that he would have likely fainted ... he agreed!

He is doing so much better that he is likely going to move back to a "regular" room on Sunday! Yay.

And he's waking up and starting to be himself! 

 

We had a steady stream of visitors all day.  First Penny ... a wonderful grandmother of several and friend to many.  She brought me "stuff" (like cream, socks, drinks, food, etc)  And mostly she gave me the gift of her time.  I am sure it was hard on some level to be in that room as she lost her husband about a year ago.  She's amazing!  (She doesn't think so.)

Then Connie and Austin from our church came by.  She's a wonderful mother to Austin, a special needs 21 year old.  She hung out for a while to help when Dan and the kids came by. 

Only 3 in the room at a time.  And in the ICU, they don't want kids under 12.  So Kaley and Jacob are fine but the others are not.  But they let them in anyway on my word that they would be quiet, respectful, etc.  (And they were of course.)  So I took 2 kids in at a time and Dan hung out in the waiting room.  Then we switched so he could go in while I washed Zoe's hair in the restroom sink (it was sticky!!).  It was nice to see them again ... hadn't seen them in a week! 

Tonight, he felt well enough that we let him sit up and play for about 4 minutes after his sponge bath.  He loved it.  He fatigued very easily because he's very weak but it did a Mama's heart good to see it.  His words are coming back.  His personality is coming back.  The nurses are cracking up at him again. 

And right at bedtime, I had the ipad FINALLY set up and ready to go (only took all day... thus no blog entry yet).  I have a feeling this is going to be his favorite toy!  I will certainly take pics of him using it once he's sitting in his wheelchair and can manipulate it. 

Thanks to all the wonderful generosity ... we already have about half of it paid for.  You might be wondering if it's too late to contribute ... no.  We already have it because a generous friend fronted the money and we're just paying back the debt.  So there is still time to contribute to his Ipad if you want.  I'll take plenty of pictures of him enjoying it.