New Things

     He was really groggy this morning. He said they woke him every two hours last night. He has a sore on his bottom and they need to turn him. He also can't breathe through his nose, so he had a rough night. They gave him nose spray, he gets that twice a day, it has a steroid in it and it is locked away. He says he can feel a difference when they use the spray. He also has a saline solution to use today and something for his mouth. They said open mouth sleepers use it so they won't get cotton mouth. 

     

     Here is the trach part they put in his trach hole. It is the long purple curved piece. No wonder he kept gagging so much. Food and mucus got caught under it. ick

   For breakfast he had a real banana, he kept saying, "This is good." And " I can't believe I'm eating a banana." I sliced it for him and then each slice in quarters. He does enjoy his food. He had eggs that were rubbery so we added pepper and a bit of salt and he got those down. He really liked his Special K, too and said, "This is good."

     

     He slept most of the morning.

Up for lunch in a chair, the PT tied his knees together with a sheet, she says it is better for the hips that way. 

    Lunch was marvelous, a big bowl of buttered noodles with parsley, egg salad (with real eggs) and lemon meringue pie from Costco. Yummy! The speech therapist moved him to the next level of food, mechanical soft, which is meat cut into cubes and vegetables in cubes. Yeah! The speech therapist, Melissa is from Texas. She has a Masters degree. She was hired when this place was built 6 1/2 years ago. She says the buildings are all the same, here, in Texas and elsewhere. 

    The nutritionist came in and is pleased with how well Bruce is doing with his eating. She did not like the color of his urine and says he needs to drink more water. 

     The PT, Aylisse is massaging his hand, the left hand is swollen. 

They have him strapped to a board. They have to watch his blood pressure, he gets dizzy. They want to put weight on his feet. His arms are getting stronger. I hold one arm and Aylisse holds the other. She keeps calling them chicken arms and I politely remind her it is ducks as in GO ducks! 

     She said her husband was making dinner tonight and walking the dog. She says he makes a sausage and sauce meal. That sounds good. 

     Got the mail, Carma sent a ukulele book from Girls camp, Rosala sent another beautiful yellow batik leaf strip for a quilt top and two cards from coworkers and family. I love mail. 

     He is sleeping now. I will work on my hexie block and post a photo later.

    This is a kit Debbie got for me to work on. At first I rolled my eyes and said yeah right, I have repented! They go pretty fast. The brown one is the sample and I made the two light blue ones by hand. Two more squares for the pink one. I think I might do a couple more. One of the nurses wants to make a baby quilt for a new Grandbaby. I told her to do a nine patch it is easier and if you put this much hand work into it you don't want a baby, no matter how precious throwing up on your hand piecing. Sigh

     Bruce is doing really well with his eating but is losing weight. He is down to 200 pounds so they will begin a night feeding on an iv. Apparently he needs more calories to heal. He was afraid he was getting fat from eating and sitting all the time. They said it was water weight. The skin on his legs just sags where all the muscle was. My heart breaks seeing him so helpless. 

     For dinner he had Mac and cheese with pepper, his favorite, a baked tater with butter and pepper, mater soup with pepper and chilled pears. 

     

     I shaved his face, it doesn't hurt as much if I go slow. Why do the movies make it look romantic? It is up close and personal, he said ouch a couple of times. I think I am getting better. Maybe

     I read sections of the paper to him from on line. We like Deseret News as it has world, movie reviews, sports and church stories. Then we discuss how all the problems could be fixed and move on to the next story.