OK, so after crying our eyes out last night, Tom and I are a little better this morning. He seemed to have a restful night. He had the nurse help call me twice - both times he repeatedly told me he had to "get out of this room", he "wasn't going to make it" if he stayed. I'm glad his intuition is not right. It didn't exactly make for a restful night for me.
This morning he was still trying to figure out a plan to get out of the room. He did, however, answer some different questions correctly for the nurse. All of the usual, day, date, year, President questions,plus several others he got right so that is encouraging.
I missed Dr. Dunn, who is always early, but was able to catch Dr. Rutland. Tom will get more blood today (if you're counting how much he's received lately, let me know). I think this will make about 12 units. His Potassium is 3.3 - still low, but Dr. Rutland and I agreed it was good - considering . . .
They are concerned about his nutrition. Tom is not eating very much (except grapes and melon) and he needs more protein. He didn't want his eggs this morning but he had two servings of milk. They may give him IV nutrition - the nutritionist will see him today. I helped get his wound dressings changed while I was there. His skin is so thin, several of the stitches he got yesterday have already ripped out. This new tear is in a really bad place on his lower abdomen. Dr. Rosen's nurse, Meredith, came in shortly after to check on the stitches and cleaned and changed the dressing again. Tom adores Dr. Rosen and Meredith so it always calms him when they see him. I had given Meredith a heads up that Tom wants to get up and get out of the room so she told him he needed to stay in bed for another day. Tom seemed to accept that OK.
Dr. Rutland called UAB and they are still on diversion. He left a message for the Liver Center and they called back right before I left. Dr. Pearman (resident intensivist) put the call through to Dr. Rutland's office. I don't know if anything will transpire from that conversation. We're all hoping that with the holidays, they will discharge some patients. He still needs to transfer to their ICU if he's in the ICU here. I like him ICU but I feel certain they will move him out as soon as they can.
I just talked to our Transplant Coordinator at UAB. I sent new blood tests today and his MELD is 27. These tests are good and can be submitted up to tomorrow night at midnight. The "new thing" is for the doctors to see the patient to make sure they are transplantable before submitting a score that will place him this high on the list. Because Tom has been at the bottom and is now suddenly at the top, they want to make sure he is not "too sick". I am very worried that since he has not been on his feet in a while that they will not want to transplant him. Everyone asks the question: is everyone that gets a transplant able to walk around, especially if you have to be so sick before getting a liver?? Well, most folks probably haven't had all of the challenges Tom has had with the leg wounds and such. If Tom had been on his feet more prior to this last set back, it would be better. I know he is still pretty strong, I continue to work with him on leg and arm exercises. I told the coordinator that he has a will to live. Anyone who has been through what Tom has been through has a will to live. If they need him to get up, he will find a way to get up. He won't be able to walk a mile but he will get on his feet. It would sure help if the nurses would quit tearing his skin though. I noticed a few new tears near the old ones that were already being treated. I could put my fist through a wall it makes me so angry. I know they can be more gentle. Most, if not all, of these were preventable.
Our coordinator is on-call this weekend and I will continue to send results. Of course it will be much, much better if Tom is already at UAB. I'll keep praying that a bed will open up so he can move today or tomorrow. The weekend will make it much more difficult.
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