Amanda was stable overnight. Her white count elevated, so they sent blood cultures to check for infection. She finally warmed temperature-wise, almost on the hot side, no more burrito. Her skin was cold, then hot to the touch, and she was sweaty, even when cold. My cousin from Louisiana was here in Nashville and came…

I don’t feel I’m as involved with this team. The cardiologist must be a late riser; I don’t see him till rounds and then after lunch for his “post” rounds. I like the evening ICU team, though, in particular, the doctor who did the intubation. There was a discussion of a CT to check her…

Close to 2 in the morning, I was startled awake by the NP. I’d only been asleep maybe an hour and a half, so I was probably hard to wake. The news wasn’t good; Amanda’s CO2 levels still weren’t in a good place. The room was filling with people; the lights turned on. An ICU…

Sunday night, after I expressed my concern, the nurse called the NP to come back to talk with us. I had asked Amanda her pain level on a scale of 1-10, and she told me 7. This was after the muscle relaxer had had plenty of time to take effect. She looked miserable, and every…

After I got back from dinner, Amanda woke up a bit and wanted some ice chips. She was up enough for me to tell her all about my new friends and how our Nashville support system is growing, and I had someone to decorate the apartment! I crashed after ice chip feeding. I didn’t sleep…

I was pretty tired and got some decent sleep Friday night. I slept like a rock all the way through the recliner theft and even shift change. Even with all the sleep, I still put my hoodie on backwards after I had a shower. The nurse looked up and said, “Barkley, you have your hoodie…

Well, my recliner got stolen again! I woke to 5 nurses standing around Amanda. A little PTSD kicked in from yesterday morning’s events. I rubbed my eyes, got my glasses, and saw they were helping her stand up and sit in the recliner. I’ll allow it! I would have gone to bed a little earlier…

Yesterday, they held all pain medication except a one-time dose of a muscle relaxer and lidocaine patches on either side of her chest incision. They wouldn’t give her any pain meds because of her lethargy, which was scary. From totally unresponsive, to awake and not speaking, to awake, eyes wide open, and unresponsive. Honestly, it…

Yesterday I had been thinking heavily on a lot. It was a bad time to have the apartment on my mind, but it is something I need to address. I wanted something beforehand so it wouldn’t be a worry now, but things moved a little quicker than anticipated. Initially, we were going to do the…

I’m sorry that last post was so grim; it was a rough night. I couldn’t have been funny or quippy about anything; I just didn’t have it in me. The wake-up to Amanda choking and vomiting was startling. I just laid in bed and prayed as I saw the nurse trying to help her. They…