There is no place like home

Neal is home. He arrived last night around 6:00. He went to bed immediately to sleep. We brought him some Dairy Queen later and he woke up for that. I am assuming he will be getting a lot of sleep the next couple of days. Although he has not eaten in a long time, he does not appear to be real hungry. Nothing else exciting to report. I guess that is the good news.

Close Down 315 North

Neal is waiting for his discharge papers and then Denise will be driving him home.

Word on the street...

Neal is getting sent home tomorrow. He is eating his first solid food today for lunch. He is currently off of the morphine pump. The blood thinner pill will restart today. His heart rate has come back down to normal. I will keep you posted.....

Not too much to report today. The blood cultures show no infection, which is wonderful news. Neal is still pretty loopy. He is starting to laugh in his sleep if any of you remember that stage. At least he is happy! If you do not get him sitting or standing, he pretty much falls asleep within seconds of speaking. I encourage any visitors to get him up and walking. He is not opposed to it, just needs to stay awake long enough to actually stand up, then he is good to go. He did pass gas yesterday, but still has not eaten. He should talk to the docs about it today. He is getting a medicine because his heart rate will not slow down. This is causing his blood pressure to be low.

Denise, Austin and his friend Bradley finished staining the deck yesterday. Thank you!!!

Questions Answered?

The doctor went over my questions with Neal this morning. I am not sure they really got us anyplace. His fever has been gone for 12 hours now, so hopefully not infection. They are treating him with anti-fungal drugs just in case. Not much is going to change with his situation until he can pass gas and then start eating. They will not give him any coumadine (blood thinner) or take away his morphine pump until then. They did decrease his benadryl and give him a different medicine for itching. I guess it is just a waiting game now.

On the lighter side, Neal woke up the other day when Stacy, Toph and Herbeck were there and said (I apologize if you are offended) "All I have to do is crap and take a lap and I can go home". That pretty much sums it up!

He has been moved to private room 1018. He is having dialysis this morning. Visitors are welcome. He also has his cell phone if you want to contact him.

Teresa - Please keep us in the loop on Kelly and the baby.

Weekend

Sorry for the delay, my internet was down. Neal is doing ok this weekend. He still has a fever. They started him on antibiotics on Sunday. We are again frustrated with his care. I think it is a combination of holes in his care and this going on for so many months. Neal is pretty irritated with me now because of some discussions we had with the doctor and nurse. I think it is what he needs, so he will just have to be mad at me. He is very loopy again. It appears to be the benadryl in his system. It seems the longer between dialysis sessions, the loopier he gets. He can barely stay awake to complete a sentence. I have requested they give him a lower dose. The doctors agreed, but Neal did not. He is still on oxygen. He is doing laps around the floor without any problems. We hope to get a lot on questions answered tomorrow with the surgeon. Today we could not get a hold of anyone on his team. The surgeon that did come said he could not really answer any of our questions. It has been a frustrating weekend and we are all ready for this to be over. He is still on the self controlled morphine pump and I have already discussed weaning him from narcotics before he is released. Again I hope to have more answers tomorrow.

The posts help, so please keep them coming. Thanks to Uncle Greg, Aunt Sue, Colleen and Jamie for making a long trip down to visit. Thanks to Denise and my Mom for sleeping at the hospital one night to help me regain my health and sanity. Denise and Austin will be back down helping out for the week. I will be returning to work for a full week hopefully. My time is running out, so I need to save it for when Neal really needs me.