Sunday April 5

Dad's temperature is finally down to around normal. I spoke with the respiratory therapist who said that dad still has pneumonia but the bacterial infection is almost gone.

Because dad's blood pressure is around normal they can start back with the medicine to try to get some of the fluid off him. This is great because he really is swollen.

The tube they put down dad's nose didn't do what they had hoped so they took it out. The problem is with the feeding tube. It is draining stomach acids which is good, however it is leaking around the edges which is not so good. Stomach acids are just that acids so it is bothering dad's skin. The nurse made the surgeon aware of it yesterday and he was off today. Guess I will have to run him down tomorrow to see what he plans on doing about it.

I watched as they changed the dressing on dad's wound today. Considering that I have no idea what it is supposed to look like, and lets face it is kind of gross looking, it looks pretty good. The nurses said it looks really good.

I understand why they put in an arterial line to keep up with dad's blood pressure. It is always updating and keeping it current. The blood pressure cuff only took his pressure once every 15 or 30 minutes.

The central line dad has has tons of different IV's going into it. I tried to count all the different things they had hanging up but I kept getting distracted. It really doesn't matter how many they are. The nurses are trying (with doctor's orders) to keep dad off of, our use as little as possible of any medicine.

Keep those prayers going up for dad and me.

Kathy