Is Neal following Paris' lead?

As Paris is sent back to the slammer, Neal is being readmitted. Hopefully one day out will help his spirits. He made it though 2 hours of dialysis and called me to pick him up. By the time I got there he was ready to go to the hospital. He was having problems breathing. He is also carrying around quite a bit of extra fluid. He now has pneumonia in both lungs. The whole family is coming down to help us get through this. Not really sure what to say, but it is still pouring at the Kothe house. At least he was directly admitted to a private room!

I am sure both Paris and Neal will make it through these trying times.

Friday

I wish I could think of more creative titles. Neal is doing ok today. The crazy meds he was on have not warn off completely. It was a long night for the both of us. His mind is racing and I am trying to convince him it is just a dream. I took him to dialysis at noon and am hoping that will help. He is also overloaded with fluids and very swollen. He decided to get oxygen while at dialysis. He thinks it was all the iv fluids that he received in the hospital. There is nothing we can do now but wait. We did request that he go in tomorrow as well for some dialysis. I want to give him every shot at feeling as good as he can.

I too am going a little crazy, but will survive. I find myself to be fairly responsible, but I have been so absent minded I have lost my debit and credit card in the same week. It was a little embarrassing when I could not pay in the check out line!

KT is leaving for out west tomorrow so we are supposed to go send her off tonight. Hopefully Neal and I can make it.

Neal is home, I think

Neal is physically home, but he is still having some hallucinations. He gets very frustrated with himself sometimes, but other times he believes his hallucinations are so real. It is very scary and it seems to be hard to snap him out of it. The doctors said he will be fine. I am hoping dialysis tomorrow will get this out of him. I am going to try and get him in as early as possible.

Ryan, Les, Matt and his mom came over tonight. Neal was in and out of the group. He took a little nap in the middle. We are headed to bed now as I try to figure out all of his new medication.

Thursday

Word on the street is Neal is coming home today. I really hope this is for good or at least until the colon surgery. He has an appointment with the surgeons on June 19th, so surgery may not be as soon as we anticipated. It would be really nice to have him home for a couple of weeks and maintain a normal schedule. His oxygen saturation is 95%, which is fine.

Wednesday - UPDATE

I guess they are saying he has pneumonia. It sounds as though they will be putting him on IV antibiotics again. If anyone goes up there, please encourage him to walk or at least get up and sit in a chair. Maybe if we spread the nagging around I will not be the only bad guy! We do not know when he will be coming home.
UPDATE - Just got a call from him saying oral antibiotics and he may be home tomorrow. I will believe it all when I see it. I have a call in to the doctors now. Hopefully they will call me back. His INR is 2.2.

Neal's breathing seems to be getting worse by the day. Some guys from work went over a couple of times yesterday to get him walking and he did not make it far. By the time I was there, he was complaining of pain in his side. We asked for an xray, but have not yet received the results. Last night they put Neal back on oxygen. His oxygen was only at 90% saturation on room air. I do not even want to say out loud what I think it is. Hopefully it is what everyone keeps saying...he has been in bed so long. The Whitney's stopped by and brought some new reading material. His spirits are getting better.

Neal also started taking pain pills, so loopy Neal is back. He is no where near where he was last month, but he had to call me and verify his dreams were just dreams this morning. So Dave we no longer have the boat and it is not for sale and Denise, do not bring 20 people down for us to feed. Perhaps he watched Just the Ten of Us or My Big Fat Greek Wedding and read his fishing magazine before going to sleep.... who knows! At this rate I am really unsure when he is coming home. I am not comfortable caring for him if he cannot breath on his own and do not want to have to return him to OSU Med Center 2 days after bringing him home.

Tuesday

Neal called me this morning and his INR is now 1.4. I do not remember it taking this long last time. They even doubled his dosage of coumadine yesterday. Yesterday we went down to the cafeteria together for dinner. His breathing does not seem that great. I have been nagging him to get around more. He is still eating fine. By the time they get his INR up he will have to go off the coumadine to get his INR back down before the colon surgery!

Another Day

His INR is still too low. They are going to draw blood again. I am sure he is antsy and I cannot wait to get him home. I will post as we get more information. He is back from dialysis now.

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Sunday

Another quiet day. Mom, Mike, Herbeck and Jim McCauley stopped up today. Neal slept most of the day. He did not sleep well last night. We still do not know when he is coming home. His INR is 1.1 still. We are getting more mixed signals on when the surgery is. He is eating fine, which is great news. Who knows? He is going to dialysis tomorrow at 7:30, so he probably will be gone until noon or so.

Thanks to Stacy and Chris for installing a programmable thermostat, doing some laundry and dishes. I apologize for the disaster you had to encounter in our bedroom! They also left some food at the house for me. I really do appreciate this.

Go Cavs!