Hugs & Kisses

Ben came by for a visit today and gave Paul hugs and kisses. It was so cute. He's gotten really clingy with my dad and with me and has been a little weary of Paul the past few days. I've been a little worried about how he's taking all this and worried that he's taken to my dad as if he's his dad, and while I know he still knows Paul is his daddy and he'll likely not remember any of this, I'm glad he had a positive visit today and am pleased that he still loves his daddy enough to give him kisses. :)

The doctor made Paul shave today (maybe that's why Ben warmed up to him...) to get ready for getting a new dialysis catheter put in tomorrow. His urine output has been great, at least 1500cc for today. They have been giving him Lasix, which is a strong diuretic to help kickstart his kidneys. I think that's contributing to the increase in output, but I also think the kidneys are doing most of it. Dr. Thomas was very pleased with his output this morning. They are still going to put the dialysis port in because they think he needs at least a few more treatments. His creatinine (the kidney function indicator) numbers are still high - if I remember correctly, this morning his creatinine was 8.1, normal is 1.3. When the kidneys are fully functioning, they'll take care of that creatinine on their own, but if it's still high, he'll need more dialysis to help.

On the movement front, Paul is doing good. By 4:30 today, it was clear to us that PT was not coming by - ugh! By 5:00 we talked to the nurse and he said he'd be right back to get him up and walking. By 6:00 we said screw it and got him up ourselves. :) Paul did GREAT! He did it all - got out of bed, stood up, got into the chair, stood up from the chair, walked a loop around the PCU, and got back in bed. There was one nurse here, just in case, when he was getting out of the chair, but she didn't have to help any. He was pretty sore afterwards, but this is a huge relief that he can do it all on his own. We will definitely be doing that more often. The movement up to the rehab floor depends on the dialysis catheter. He'll be put under again to have that done, so they'll need to monitor him in PCU for a day or so after that. If it's done Monday afternoon, it likely wouldn't be until Wednesday that he's moved up... blah. But now that we know he can move without the help of the too-busy-nurses, we can do our own rehab in the PCU.