Threatening Therapy

Tim was moved to the ICU yesterday afternoon after going on the ventilator, and here he's been sleeping a lot (no surprise after the ordeal he's been through since last Friday). When he does wake up, he's pretty funny.

He makes a lot of jokes, like when the nurse swabbed his mouth with mouthwash and asked if there was anything else he needed, he repeated something over and over that none of us, trying our best at lip-reading, could understand. Finally, Tim began to spell the most troublesome word for me, and I realized he was asking about the mouth swabs: "Do you have one of those that tastes like gorgonzola?"

That was funny on a couple levels, one of them being that gorgonzola and pears was one of our favorite desserts in the fall, and the other being that I've been complaining that his lungs smell like gorgonzola for a couple months now.

Cindy's been a big help with the medical staff, helping me learn to ask the right questions and not to get too wrought up about what at times seems like uncareful care.

At 1:00 in the afternoon, his heart went into atrial fibrillation/flutter, or arrhythmia. They began administering digoxin to get him back into a regular ("sinus") rhythm.

They also started feeding him via a feeding tube today. He wanted me to talk with Dr. Pulmonologist about that, because a dear friend of Tim's had complications from a feeding tube in his last hospital stay. The doctor reassured Tim that the tube itself is not the cause of infections, and that they will remain vigilant about the possibilities of improper drainage into his duodenum, and he did not feel that the other risk--aspiration into the lungs--was a potential problem for Tim. The staff did at least two x-rays today (and later) to ensure proper placement of the tube. Cindy explained what this article also discusses: the risk of improper placement.

In checking his medications in the evening, I found out that they were giving Tim oral baclafen. He got concerned about that, saying he shouldn't have it in addition to the pump. They discontinued it.