ADVANCING

Thanks to my wonderful sisters-in-law, I went home and slept in our bed with our 2 puppies last night.  It was so nice!  Tom had a good night too.

Although the nurses and doctors continue to tell us Tom is still very, very sick, he is also pretty stable so the critical care doctor said we should take this opportunity to go home and rest at night.  We're probably going to start doing that - just may need a tractor-trailer to move out of camp CCU.

A couple of doctors have come through and provided a bit of an update - don't get much on the weekends.  A surgeon came by overnight and decided Tom is not a candidate for surgery right now.  The infection is still present and the liver function is s-l-o-w-l-y improving but it's not making the clotting factors necessary for them to feel comfortable with surgery.  That's good with me right now too.  I'm not sure I could handle Tom being put to sleep.  The nurses are guessing he will be in CCU another week.  His white blood cell count has gone up but they are watching it and don't seem to be as concerned about it as I am.  His ammonia level did drop some more so that's very good.

Tom got to have coffee this morning and I think they are going to allow him to try some solid foods.  He told Cathy he wanted a hamburger - don't think he's going to get that.  He may start physical therapy today or tomorrow too which would really help.  He is getting really tired of laying on his back and being unable to move. 

The nurses told us that often CCU patients will get "sundowners" in the evening.  There are no windows in his room so he doesn't really know day from night.  Starting today we are keeping the lights on during the day to help him out a bit.  With "sundowners" the patients get kind of confused in the evening.  Tom thinks he is getting up at night and filling up his water pitcher. 
This is Cathy now.  A friend of Jeanne's has come to visit so she will finish her post in a minute...