Not himself

Tom was not himself most of the day today. For whatever reason, his ammonia level must have spiked, coupled with the fact that he had backed off a little on the ammonia medicine because he felt like he was getting dehydrated. I was actually more worried about him getting dehydrated because that would possibly put him back in the hospital with IV fluids. After all the fluid he's lost so far, I sure didn't want to start THAT over. He's lost about 12 lbs since he got here! They also had problems with his wound vac last night. Tom knew his ammonia level was going up - he called me about 6:45 this morning and asked me to come up. I threw on some clothes and headed over. He was somewhat confused but very sleepy. I helped them change the wound vac dressing, it didn't faze him much - he slept through most of it. I couldn't get him to wake up to eat breakfast so I went on to church. I came back a couple of hours later. He was still very sleepy but I managed to keep him awake long enough to get him to eat some lunch. He fell asleep again so I went home for a few hours. When I got back this afternoon, he was more alert but still struggling some. It will just take a little more time. He's more frustrated with himself right now. He has a good nurse until 11 pm so that helps. They are few and far between here. Tom did not have any PT this weekend but that will start again tomorrow. He does better when there is stuff going on. Yesterday he seemed kind of depressed - of course he's been bed-ridden for over six straight weeks - who wouldn't be depressed? His sister is coming up later this week. I know that will do wonders for him (and me)! I found out last night that they did do blood work on Thursday. Everything looked pretty good. His WBC is at 13 but his red count is low. We'll see what they do about that tomorrow. Please pray that the ammonia level will drop fast. He's worried about struggling tonight.