I don’t have any helpful advice or medical information to share, nor even a personal experience. But my thoughts and good wishes are with you both, believe it. I’ve gotten teary-eyed reading this, thinking about if it were my own schmoopie in the hospital. Big hugs to you, ms. Shoe.
DON’T
You’re tired.
Rest.
If you don’t take care of yourself you can’t take care of anyone else.
Schmoopie is in the care of medical personnel. Trust them to care for him for a night. Now go take care of yourself.
Agrees that you need to rest. When Bill was recovering from his surgery, all I did was help him. It was terrible exhasting. Take some time to play with your cats, read a good book, work in your garden. You need and deserve some time to decompress.
BTW, I thought about you while I was weed wacking my yard. Arms made of spegetti 
More prayers on the way, and some bad words when I go back out to battle the weeds.
hugs Get some rest, hon. And eat something normal with lots of protein.
Meanwhile – do you need anything (physically or whatnot) that any of us could help with?
hands favorite teddy bear to horseshoe And the giggling Pillsbury doughboy for when you wake up.
What she said.
It might make you feel better to know that patients in the ICU remember very little of their time there.
Rest is healing. Heal thyself.
Adding to everyone else to say please sleep purplehorseshoe!
(and watch out for roaches)
The nurses also always say that hearing is last sense to fade out.
So what you say to the patient gets through at the time you are saying it, and is sustaining and comforting to them at that time even if they don’t remember it later.
As many others have said upthread, you have to take care of yourself to be able to take care of others.
I missed getting to see him this morning off sedation 
although his parents gave me the full report. (He’s slightly better, and his lungs are clearer.) I was still feeling completely worn out and slightly feverish, so I didn’t want to risk getting him or anyone else in the ward sick just because my own defenses aren’t as they should be.
Oh, well - there’s always gonna be another sedation vacation. They’re giving him some more blood** and a new dose of interferon today.
** I believe there’s a way to donate in his name … does that sound familiar to any blood doners here? It’s not where you donate to him directly (he has a rare type anyway, AB - ) but it somehow “credits” to him … yeah? No? If that is the case, PM me for details if you’re interested and going to have a vein opened anyway.
This is GOOD news! Little steps will get him where he needs to be - back at home with you! We’re still following and sending good thoughts. I know it really hard but hang in there and if there’s anything we can do please just ask.
Just a little public service announcement here: you can also donate platelets, instead of whole units of blood. It’s a little more involved but extremely helpful, as platelets are generally in short supply due to their shelf-life of only 5 days. I only bring this up because you’ve mentioned Schmoopie’s low platelet count once or twice. You can get more information on donating either blood or platelets through the American Red Cross here. Doper friends, even if you are not local to purplehorseshoe, adding to the national blood supply is a good thing. Blood is shipped nationwide, every day, to areas of greater need.
Some hospital centers that do their own blood collection in-house (as opposed to with the Red Cross) have a donation credit system, but it’s not something I’ve ever had personal experience with, so I’m afraid I can’t be of any help. Would the “credit” mean that donors would offset the cost of the units of blood he is getting? If so, consider getting all the info from the hospital’s blood bank and telling local friends through Facebook (or here, if there are lots of Dopers who are nearby).
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the trend continues in the right direction, purplehorseshoe.
I’m so relieved for this update as I saw on CNN last night a report on another death due to West Nile Virus. Please keep us updated. You are in our thoughts.
Yes, call the local blood bank. If you’re in a city large enough to have more than one, ask the nursing staff where you go to donate. Your blood won’t, necessarily, be given to him, but it credits his account. It will take a little off the hospital bill and keep the blood bank stocked for others in need. Even if he’s only getting one, or a few units, as many people who want to can donate in his name.
One other thing, if he still needs platelets, getting related donors can help him retain them. Even unrelated donors platelets if taken all at once from one donor are better than pooled platelets.
The process is lengthy and can be uncomfortable, but is worth it in the end.
I didn’t see Antigen’s post before I wrote this, sorry.
He’s had a good day. 
Apparently they kept him off the sedation this morning for over an hour and he handled it well, soooo … tomorrow morning, his pulmonologist wants to start turning off the oxygen entirely. Yay! I do so hope he’s strong enough to tolerate it and keep doing better. He is scheduled to start a 3-day course of interferonthis evening, so hopefully that’ll a) help with the viral load but b) not make him feel too craptastic once they wake him up.
Thanks again for the good thoughts, everyone. It’s nice to be able to unload worries somewhere, and I appreciate knowing that my anonymous internet stranger friends are out there.
I’ve been following along and pulling for Mr. Shoe, and continue to do so. Virtual hugs to you both. Tell him the Dopers are all wishing him well!
There are ways to do directed donations. I’m not sure of all the details, but yeah..I think it helps with allocations. Last time I was involved with something like that, it was suggested that we NOT publicize the blood type, so the blood banks could get a bigger surge.
-D/a
Meh, never mind, at least not for today. They had to bump his oxygen back up to 90 %, so no vent-weaning (shutting off his air temporarily) today. Otherwise, he’s mostly about the same, more or less. He’d been bleeding out somewhere in his GI tract so they’d taken him off the feeding slurry for a bit, but he just got “lunch” today at noon and so is back on that.
How are his little subcutaneous rice krispies doing?
Glad to hear that his slurry consumption is back on track (tract?)… 
How’s his blood pressure looking?
Late to the thread, but my thoughts are with you aund your husband. Remember to take care of yourself and eat because if you don’t who will take care of you, and him when he gets out.
Stay well. Stay strong. You are among friends here.