On the road again

The recipient had a BIG day today. He was given some yummy beef broth. Something that smelled decent, but looked like it was scooped up form a Louisiana bayou. It looked pretty brown. It was beef broth, and I suppose after five days of no food it will pass as food or something resembling a food product. He also got some crackers and a little Sprite/7UP/Sierra Mist to boot. Early this evening he was moved from ICU to a bed and rolled on down the road on up to another floor. He only stayed in ICU for four days. We were expecting to see him in there for about two weeks. There could be a couple of factors at play. One, would be insurance. Get him to a cheaper room. Or two, his progress. He has seen his (or "a") doctor a few times each day. Well, he remembers seeing one but it could be the hallucinations from the really "good stuff" he's getting for the pain. The good doc says things are going well. I guess that' waht we want to hear, right.

Anyway, he was on the move Saturday evening.

Once he made it up to hi s new diggs, we broke out the Lysol disinfectant wipes and wiped down all the surfaces we thought he might be able to touch and what ever we might be able to touch.

Hospitals aren't exactly the cleanest environments. We tried to do our part.

Before he departed the ICU, I found out that his nurse was from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. More inland than where I came from. But a NWer nonetheless. Once we learned that, i was asked to see if I had any pictures from one of our trips to the Great State of WA. Surely enough, I did. She was pretty excited to see those. So I offered to see what I had at home and put together a CD of pictures from WA, OR and ID. DONE!

The recipient made it up to his new room and we shortly followed after. It's pretty nice. A single bed so we don't have to deal with other visitors in the same room. I am sure as time goes on, he might end up in a double room. But for now, it will be nice. We were limited to two people in ICU.

He was pretty pooped out. We could see it on his face. He wasn't as talkative either. One of the main issues is his pain medication. A full dose will render him pretty loopy for about 12-15 hours. He can wake up but he isn't too aware. But a few hours after the meds wear off I think he has his best hours. Where he can hold a conversation and is aware. Another issue is he has double vision. He can't really read and watching TV (he has one now) might not be all that comfortable. He can hear, so it's at least something. his pinky, ring and middle finger of his left hand are numb and don't bend all the way into a fist. It's something the nurses have been made aware of but no one seems to think it's an issue. Except us of course.

My wife is sleeping in the room tonight. She wasn't convinced he is doing well enough to be in a new room without full supervision. The ICU rooms are wide doors and a nurse within eyesight. These are actual rooms and you can't see the patients unless you are actually IN the rooms. Hopefully, things go well tonight. The nursing staff is in for a treat, that's for sure. Wait until the other daughter is well enough to head to the floor. Whoo, wheeee.

Actually, to digress a little. My wife put don a few "orders" for the "new" nursing staff. She asked that everyone that enters the room, use the disinfectant gel that is at every door. The nurse in charge looked at her like it was out of the question. But yet, there are signs EVERYWHERE to have hospital staff wash when entering AND leaving. I'll leave it there, because you don't have enough time to go over the cleanliness of the rooms. This new one looked a little better. But really. It's not somewhere you can call CLEAN. No hospital is.