My birthday in the hospital

Today - January 26th - is my birthday



Not the place I had hoped to spend it.....

but Josh is sick....

so we are in the hospital.







It's not fun when Josh is sick, but it did NOT ruin my birthday.

Josh gave me a card that Nurse Nancy brought up for him to work on for me. He wrote in it that he is glad we get to hang out together. It was sweet.
(I'm glad to get to spend the whole day with him, too)


Nancy and Jenny (Josh's home nurses) came to the hospital and brought us gifts and us girls went to lunch together in the hospital cafeteria while Josh ate up in his room.




This evening, my sister brought a bithday cake and dinner up to the hospital and my mom called to join in singing me "Happy Birthday" before I blew out my imaginary candles. We sliced up the cake and even shared small pieces with the hospital nurses... but sh! don't tell. :)




So, how is Josh doing?
He still has pneumonia in both lungs and is still fighting the flu (all we know is it's Influenza A).

He had a visit from his endocrinologist (Dr. Danney) early this morning who said all the tests Josh had in his office a week or so ago came back with good results. He told Josh he hoped the spot noticed on the CT scan from yesterday might only be a nodule of pneumonia (instead of a tumor). We would find out for sure after another scan scheduled for today.


Josh was very dehydrated yesterday and his urine output low but very concentrated. Overnight, he got IV fluids after getting his PICC line put in. Even though he took his DDAVP which is supposed to help him hold in his fluids, he was up in the night and again early morning peeing out LOTS (a urinal full each time). By just before 11AM, Josh had an output of like 2,000 ccs - nearly twice his input level. It was a little alarming. His nurse called Dr. Danney back for his advice/orders as I was going to lunch with our home nurses. When I got back, Josh's hospital nurse told me Dr. Danney said he wanted me (not one of the nurses) to give Josh a dose of his DDAVP (since I had the most experience giving it to him - :) ). So, I gave it to him and he it seemed to help.


Josh's lung doctor (Dr. Patel) who wanted him admitted to the hospital in the first place came in a little later in the morning. He told us a few things of interest: first, he is sending a rep from a different DME (durable medical equipment) company to see us probably later today, he wants to recommend we replace Josh's current ventilator (the LTV 950) with one called the Trilogy from Respironics.

And I asked Dr. Patel how long he thought Josh might need to stay in the hospital. He said at least until Friday - maybe longer. He also wanted to order a special breathing treatment to help break up some of the pneumonia in the base of Josh's lungs. Josh had two sessions of that treatment and wow it's different, but it seems to work really well.

Oh, and Josh started to complain that he couldn't hear out of his left ear (just as Dr. Patel was outside writing up orders) so I called the doctor back in to check it out. He took a look with a scope and said Josh's ear was infected, but the antibiotic he's on for the pnuemonia should clear it up, too.

After lunch and his dose of the DDAVP nose spray I gave him, Josh was loaded onto a wheelchair and I was asked to come help get him, along with his ventilator and an oxygen tank down to the CT scanner again for the test the hematologist ordered there - one with contrast. We had to stop once along the way and I had to suction Josh because some gunk came up and was clogging his trach. Luckily, we have his suction stuff right on his cart. Once we got there, they let me stay inside (as long as I wore a heavy apron) while they did this scan. Josh did very well. And we loaded him back up and brought him and his stuff back up to his room.


The respiratory therapist who accompanied us told me there is another patient on Josh's floor who has the vent Dr. Patel is recommending for us. She took me down to let me look in through the window at the vent (so I could see for myself how compact it was). She said it is fairly new and seems to have great features. She too thinks we will love it. So, Josh and I are anxious to hear from the new DME company rep and see when we'll have everything set up for him to get the new ventilator.


Below is a picture of the Trilogy ventilator:


Here is a link to a site with much more information on the Trilogy:

http://http//trilogy100.respironics.com/

We should find out in the next couple of days if or when we'll get this new ventilator for Josh.... and we expect to hear results about the spot found in Josh - whether its a tumor or not... and what if anything will be done about it.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to everybody who sent me a birthday greeting to my email and/or Facebook account. There are so many of you. I really appreciated seeing your greetings. It did help light up my day!


I do wish I could have gotten the chance to see, hold and spoil my brand new grandbaby on my birthday.... but I don't want to chance getting him sick. I plan to spend plenty of time after we go home hugging and kissing and loving on baby Logan.