Checking in and very happy about the continuing good news. I would have cheated in your place. I loves how he smiled after crunching up the ice.
More prayers and good thoughts on the way.
I’m late to the gathering, but sending my best wishes for an excellent recovery to your husband.
He was sleeping like an angelic baby this morning. 
Glad he’s getting some rest, although I suspect he’s not sleeping well at night and may wind up getting all nocturnal on us. Saw his chest X-rays: right lower lung is still all cloudy, and there’s some haze developing in his left lung that wasn’t there earlier. Otherwise, much the same.
I suspect the exciting part of this thread is over …
Good! I hope it gets more and more boring from here on out!
GO SCHMOOPIE!! Bore us to tears!!
I hope so too!!
At what point do they think they might try getting him up - sitting or maybe even standing? I can’t help thinking that that would be amazingly helpful with getting the lungs working correctly - someone who’s stuck in bed is surely at higher risk for pneumonia complications. Of course, my medical degree comes from the University of Google, which doesn’t offer hands-on training, so what do I know ;).
His bed is kept angled so his head/upper body are 30 - 45 degrees. They’ve tilted the bed a couple of times even further, so he’s nearly “standing” while still lying in bed. They do a percussive thing with this bed, too, where the whole thing shakes him back and forth rapidly to help expel crud from his lungs. He’s on a heavy dosage of Mucinex as well.
Not boring. Won’t be boring till he’s back at home and going to work as normal. Do please keep posting.
They don’t know the cause of the fluid that keeps re-filling his lungs, especially the right one in the lower third. They’re done cultures but nothing has really grown from those. This afternoon, one of his pulmonologists suggested the possibility that there’s something wrong with his diaphragm muscles on that side, which makes sense considering how weak the rest of his muscles currently are. If it is paralysis, I damn well hope it’s temporary.
Lazy bastard slept through the third visit of the day. 
They said a physical therapist came around earlier to do some passive motion exercises - plus there was another bed-shaking pulmonary therapy - so he’s quite tuckered out.
Poor guy. And poor you. What an ordeal, even if everything ends up alright in the end. Big hugs for both of you.
Wow, who knew hospitals offered vibrating beds!
The real mystery is how they’re going to code that on the bill, and what kind of markup or in-network discount they get for all those quarters the nurses have been feeding into the thing :D.
So when his dad wrote out the alphabet on a white board and pointed to each letter individually, they’d gotten to JAZM when I walked in, took one look at the white board and back at his parents’ confused faces, and said “Jasmine iced tea?” Vigorous nods. Today he was insisting on getting a pen - actually raised his arm high enough to start pulling one out of his dad’s shirt pocket - and wrote out ARNOLD PAL on his dad’s little notebook. “Arnold Palmer?” ask I. Vigorous nods. “The drink?” More vigorous nodding. “What’s an Arnold Palmer?” his parents asked near-simultaneously. I laughed, and Shoe laughed too, silently. “What kind of Texans are these people?” I asked him. “Good thing you got yourself a Yankee wife to translate.” Eyeroll.
An Arnold Palmer is half iced tea, half lemonade. What’s kinda weird is that while Shoe makes lemonade or limeade all the time, and will brew a batch of iced tea or three on a hot weekend, I have never once seen him make a half-and-half. I think he just wants something cold and sweet.
Do I know my husband, or what, though?
Oh, and earlier, when he was sleeping, I was reminded of a thread I started years ago (it’s my most-successful thread to date :D) that was initiated by me wondering what it is about guys cupping their crotch while they sleep. I swear to you people, the whole reason he got one arm strong enough to move it around was so he could rest his hand on his junk as he slept.
I’m curious what the long-term prognosis is for Mr. Shoe? Are the doctors expecting a full recovery or might there be some lasting effects like weak lungs or something?
In that half drugged state, people start to think, “If I can just say the correct drink, they’ll give it to me!” Kids are even worse. They will go through a list of every wet thing they can think of.
Tell him he’ll just have to pretend the pink swabs are iced tea. 
Ha! Do they still have him in restraints? There’s some amount of leeway in the type and length…if you have a sympathetic nurse, she may have some that will allow junk cupping and still keep him from yanking on tubes in his more stuporous moments.
Glad to hear things are getting funny.
YO! I can’t believe I haven’t seen this thread before today! You’re one of my favorite posters here (okay, partly due to that AWESOME Christmas present you sent me) and I’m sorry I didn’t realize all you were going through.
I’ve never subscribed to a thread before but am subscribing to this one. I’m glad hubby seems to be mostly out of the woods.
There isn’t much any of us can do for you, especially those of us living some 5,000 miles away, but you’re in our thoughts. Hang in there, luv.
No, WhyNot, no more restraints on his wrists at all. He’s lucid enough that I think he understands exactly why he shouldn’t yank tubes. They’ve taken him off the propofol (sedative) which is IIRC part of the restraint-removal policy in place.
Floaty Gimpy, his long-term prognosis is … still quite fuzzy. He’s going to need weeks of care once he’s stable enough to be moved out of the ICU, and then weeks or months of rehab and physical therapy. At minimum. Likely both inpatient and, eventually, outpatient. Beyond that, the details are between Shoe and his future.
Speaking of: is there any discernable difference between different acute care and rehab facilities that the average layperson can spot on a casual visit? The case manager at the hospital gave us a list of places in Shoe’s insurance network, and his parents are gung-ho about going to visit them all. His dad turned to me and said, “What’s your time frame for seeing these places?” I said, trying hard not to grit my teeth, “Um, really, I have no time frame. I’m either here at the hospital or I’m. At. Work.” Gawd, I hate dealing with retired people. His mom, I understand, but sweet good God, man, you used to work the corporate lifestyle. Have you forgotten so quickly what it’s like TO HAVE TO WORK ALL DAMN DAY???!?!?! He has the luxury of a wife to cook and clean - if I don’t clean up the cat puke or wash the dishes, they stay right there, dammit!!! The groceries don’t walk themselves into my fridge, dammit!!! pant pant
Sorry, gah, had to rant. Goddammit that got under my skin, and frankly, I just don’t see what taking the time to walk around a facility would net me. They’re all highly reputable, so I don’t think I’m going to walk in on Dr. Nick and roaches scuttling across the floor or something. Maybe I’m wrong, in which case, I know this is the place where someone will rush to correct me and set me straight - please do! Should I go see these places?
On a more positive note, my next-door neighbor had her lawn guys yesterday and sent them over to mow and edge our [del]burgeoning jungle[/del] grass as well. Thank you!!! (Ha, ha, joke’s on me: the grass DOES mow itself, dammit!!!)
Lessee, what else: oh, his heart function has returned to pretty much normal. There’s still some fluid around his heart, but the doc said it’s no longer interfering with the cardiac function. That’s the only real good news, though. The bad news is, his damn lungs just won’t behave; they keep re-filling with fluid, the right one in particular and at this rate, it’s going to take a while to wean him off the ventilator, quite possible longer than he’ll be staying in the ICU in the first place. (In other words, he may have to stay on oxygen once he’s transferred to the new care facility.)
Me = cranky.
I have to admit, I need a break from his parents, I guess. However, it’s not like I’m going to tell them they can’t see their only son. I’m starting to suspect that his mom puts more stock in doctors than she should; it’s hard to remember, man it really is sometimes, but I understand if I remind myself to think about it that they’re just average people, mere mortals doing their daily job, and they’re not omniscient. She has a weird grasp of science-y stuff anyway: when they were first explaining that he was on antibiotics not for the WNV but for a secondary bacterial infection, as we were walking back to the elevators:
Her: Oh, I forgot to ask the doctor …
Me: What?
Her: Well, that bacteria … could it maybe have been something he ate?
Me: You mean, like, food poisoning or something?
Her: Well, no. I just thought, maybe, something was sprayed onto his food?
Me: I don’t … um … 
… think folks are in the habit of spraying food with bacteria … :dubious:
WTF?
Oh, and you’re more than welcome, KNT. It was truly my pleasure. Ours, actually: as the sole resident pickle-eater in this house he consulted on that portion of your package.
Rehab: can the in-laws do the vetting for you?
Things to consider - and speaking just from family members’ experiences:
- Does the facility have a specialty that they concentrate on (e.g. traumatic brain injury, spinal rehab, or whatever).
- What are the rooms like? (my mother was initially placed in a room shared with a senile older woman with incontinent bowels - pretty unpleasant)
- Do they offer services on the weekend, or is that just “feed 'em and keep 'em alive” time? My mother-in-law was in rehab for a week or two after an illness caused severe weakness, and her last 3 days there were a weekend. They stopped services for the weekend (apparently standard), and basically kept her there over the weekend for no purpose. Either she needed to be there, in which case she should have had continued assistance with learning how to walk w/o falling, or she didn’t - in which case they just kept her there to milk Medicare or something.
Once you (or the in-laws) have gotten an initial impression, honestly I’d choose the one that is most conveniently located - either to your home or your office.
Can the in-laws help out at all with the household logistics at your place? Maybe pick up groceries and prepared meals so you have something marginally better than hospital cafeteria “food” on occasion?
Glad he’s restraint free!
Choosing a rehab center is much like choosing a nursing home. Someone should go check it out. Highly reputed is good, but some places gain a good reputation, change administration and then go to hell and it takes a while for the reputation to reflect reality.
There are guides online, but here’s how my SO, a paramedic of 30+ years who’s seen a lot of rehab centers, taught me to choose one for my grandmother:
Follow your nose. Literally. A bad rehab place will have a putrid odor, from Depends or underpads (“chucks”) that are left on the patients or beds too long or garbage cans that aren’t emptied or infected sores that don’t get their dressings changed often enough.
Ask someone in uniform walking in the hall for a glass of water. If s/he looks inordinately stressed out at the request or it takes >10 minutes, they may be understaffed. (To be fair, they may be having a bad day or someone called in sick or something unusual, but it’s still a sign that you should look more closely at staffing levels.)
Look at the patients - are they busy with therapy, working on crafts, playing bingo or cards and talking to each other? That’s a GREAT rehab center. Are they mostly watching TV, sitting around the nurse’s station and saying hi to you as you pass? That’s a fair rehab center. Are they lined up in wheelchairs down the hallways so sedated they’re drooling on themselves or left alone in their beds for hours? That’s a shitty rehab center.
Talk to the patients. If they’re in a public space, then you can talk to them without getting anyone’s permission but theirs. Ask them, are they well treated? Have they been to other rehab places before? Is this one a pretty good one? Most people will put a bit of a shiny gloss on it, but you can tell when people aren’t happy. And the oldest ones are generally pretty honest, sometimes brutally so.
Look at the equipment. Is it mostly whole and functional as is, or is a lot of it taped up, frankensteined from mis-matching parts or otherwise jerry-rigged to make it work? Last thing you want is an injury from malfunctioning equipment because they don’t have proper stuff on hand.
Don’t remember if you have pets, but some rehab centers allow pets to visit. Grandma was so thrilled when her dog came to visit her! (The dog was pretty ecstatic, too!)
Once you’ve chosen one and he’s in rehab, don’t forget that you can have him transferred if you or he are not happy with the care. Visit often, at erratic hours, so you see how he’s being treated all hours, not just during the busiest visiting hours or when they’re expecting you. (Even when he’s alert, he may not want to worry you by telling you he’s not getting the best care; he may think he’s tough enough to handle it on his own.) Bring some pictures of you and other family members and personal items from home to decorate his room - studies show that when staff see these things, the patient gets better care, possibly from an unconscious realization that this is a real person here, not just “patient in Bed 120A”.
Thank the CNA’s. Often. Many times, they provide most of the actual hands-on care, while the RN’s are scrambling to pass meds, call doctors and do paperwork. You want a good relationship with your CNA so s/he provides excellent care and communicates anything worrisome to you.