Woohoo!

Woohoo! Paul got himself out of the chair today!! I knew he could do it. He had a nurse on each arm to help him get up, but he was able to push up and support his weight and then walk a couple feet to the bed. Hooray!

I didn't post yesterday because it's just been more of the same, working on getting moving and eating regular food. He's been making good progress, he's been able to move his legs without my help and turn his upper body from side to side on his own. He still has a lot of muscle to build back up, but he's getting there.

The doctor told us that he might move him out of the ICU soon. Paul's a little apprehensive about that because he likes the nurses and gets one-on-one care. He's just not needing much critical care anymore, so it doesn't make sense to stay in the ICU. Plus visiting hours are better outside and I could spend the night and help him with exercises more often which should get him home faster.

All of his bloodwork is still looking good. The last CK reading I heard was 700 (yesterday). It's obviously an exponential curve and it's taking it's sweet time to get down to normal levels in the 200's. Everything else is looking good, so the doctor ordered dialysis today only to take off some fluid (rather than to also equalize electrolytes, etc as they've been doing). Paul has been pretty swollen from retaining fluids and they were just working on taking some of that fluid out. They took off 4.2L yesterday, and 0.9L today, but he's still swollen in some key areas. I guess all the swelling will really come down once his kidneys fully kick in.

They are starting to take him off the dilaudid and onto a less-strong pain medicine. This is good because I think he's starting to get dependent on the dilaudid and I don't think he needs it anymore. The dilaudid does such a number on his system and I think it might be messing with his appetite and the nauseous feeling when he tries to eat. Hopefully that will change with some new meds and his eating will pick up. He's resting now after what I think was his last shot of dilaudid, so I'm off to see Ben. :)