Life in PCU

Eric, Bob, and I are "living large," as our favorite ICU nurse Randy loves to say. Things are going well in PCU. Eric slept better last night than in a long time, and Bob and I enjoyed not having to split the night into two shifts. Occupational therapy came by this morning bearing gifts of applesauce, chocolate milk, and the long awaited lemonade. Eric did great with the swallowing, trying a little of each. It upset his stomach, but he hasn't had real food in nearly a month. So that will take time.

The pulmonary doctors, who are formally following Eric now, came by, still smiling. They want to slowly wean the ventilator until we can do trach mask trials. His current vent settings are CPAP 5, PSV 8, FiO2 .30 during the day. SIMV 8, pressure limit 16, 10/5 PSV/CPAP at night.

Physical therapy came. Eric exercised his limbs and sat on the edge of the bed for five minutes. Then a psychologist came. But by that time, Eric was napping. Maybe she'll talk to him tomorrow.

A new friend, Lee Ann, kindly took me to Target today. Now that we have more storage in our new room and can truly move in, I bought some healthy food; milk, cereal, yogurt, cheese sticks, strawberries. And I bought Eric some button down shirts and casual shorts so he can get dressed!

Since Bob will be heading back to work before too long, he started his trach care training today, learning how to suction and how to clean the trach. We need to learn all this in the likely event that Eric will come home with the trach and possibly the ventilator. But in my usual optimistic fashion, I'm hoping he continues to recover quickly and returns home with neither.