Good morning! 53 and still raining. Have had a lot of rain over night. Temps are supposed to fall through this afternoon.
Grocery shopping, screw around in the garage, seems like I spent most of my time looking for a part I misplaced.
Finally found it. Also ran more stuff through the ultrasonic cleaner. Need to change the water, it is getting dark.
Last year...
Morning visit for blood draw and the ****** Youth. Then I met my 2 day shift nurses that would be pretty much my day shift nurses for the next 2 weeks during the work week.
Kandi was to be my day shift charge nurse for 9 of the next 13 business days I was in the hospital. She had a great sense of humor, was very professional, and I enjoyed having her as a nurse. Turns out she had experience with an NG tube as she had been in a serious accident and spent 30 days with an NG tube. I was going bat **** crazy with it after 5 days. Turns out that is how they fed her for the 30 days. She helped me to try to deal with it.
Mikaela was my day shift nurses aide. Much younger than Kandi, but very competent. She was just a very nice person. I came to look forward to her visits to check on me. Turns out she had Covid intestine very early on and had the same doctor, Dr. Deb A. She had been through an early version of the "the program". She was one of the first survivors of Covid intestine at the hospital. She did a lot to coach me through it.
Vitals had become stable, my heart rate remained elevated at 120 - 130 BPM. But everything else was as good as could be expected considering. My temperature had dropped to 98°. In addition to listening to my lungs with a stethoscope, they were now listing to my abdomen as well. It had been a pretty silent place. I seem to remember at some point on Monday is when they heard the first sounds in my abdomen.
Visits from a lot of doctors. Dr. Deb A was back on duty, she told me to be patient, when the blockage shrunk, then things would start to happen. Until then, patience was needed. Again, not one of my strong points...….
Dr. F stopped in, told me based on everything he was seeing, my actual Covid infection was over. And technically, so was his involvement with me. Yet he continued to stop to visit and see how I was doing. And he always seemed to ask if I felt I was being treated properly.
Dr. Deb B stopped in. My wife had gotten a hold of the hospital administrator and apparently it was a memorable phone conversation. I heard of the call from my wife and Dr. Deb B.
Dr. Deb B had a cough. She had the cough since I had met her on Saturday. She told me she had Covid early on and had lung damage from it. She made an odd comment "I am going to do some things to make sure you don't have to deal with the same lung damage I have".
I noticed later that the bottle that contained the steroids for the lungs was different (the things you notice when you have nothing else to do). Found out later that Cleveland Clinic had developed a steroid cocktail for Covid pneumonia. I was one of the 1st 3 to receive it locally.
Pulmonary was in and reduced my oxygen flow for the first time. Went from 10L/min. to 9L/min. I was able to maintain 95% BOL at the reduced rate.
I also got a chair beside my bed so the nurses could get me into the chair and sit up normally. That would tire me out, but got to enjoy the view of the roof of the emergency department
Everyone stay safe out there!
