Update 9pm Thursday by Dave

Carol rested for over an hour after her big walk today. Then she ordered dinner and then was in for a surprise. Our dear friends Warren and Sandy joined Tim, Kiersten and I as we had a little surprise burthday celebration. The food folks added a small special birthday dessert to her tray and the on duty staff (as many as could be spared , 6 or 7) joined us in singing "Happy Birthday" to Carol. Then she opened up her cards and gifts.

Wasn't the birthday we had originally hoped to celebrate, but it was a good one none the less. We also noticed that the monitors which had her name and age still showed her as being a year younger. Tim thinks that's because she is going to have to now repeat that year.

When I was getting ready to leave for the evening, her heartbeat took off and suddenly ran up to about 125. The nurses noticed this and came into find out what the cause was. She had an atrial fibrillation which is supposedly normal, but scary to us. They ordered an EKG and the EKG person was there like 60 seconds later to do it. Once they printed that out, they confirmed it was AF and called Dr. Shin at home. He ordered some medication to take care of it. It will take some time for it to work but all should be well soon with that. Also, her fever is back up slightly.

Hopefully she will get a good night's rest.

Update 3:45pm Thursday by Dave

Carol just got back from her first walk. They told us during her consult that she would only go 15-20 feet for the first walk. Would you believe she circled the entire ward - a distance of 300+ feet!!! That has made her tired and so we will defer the trip outside for now. She was up for 3 hours and will probably sleep a bit now. Also her fever is gone.

Update 3:00pm Thursday by Dave

Carol is doing great. Dr.Shin stopped by just now and removed the last chest tube. That should make her feel even better. He also presented her with a birthday present on behalf of the staff. It is a little angel statue with a red heart. Dr. Shin also said she can go outside in a wheel chair now so we will do that when he is done. She was excited to hear that!

Update Thursday noon by Dave

Carol is doing much better now. The fever is under control and she was in her chair for 3 hours before I was here. She slept for an hour while I was here and that refreshed her. Only 2 IV lines out of the original 30 remain plus the chest tube which comes out later today.

She also heard that the current target for her to go home is Monday.

Lunch just arrived and she said it "was huge."

Update 8:30am Thursday by Dave

I just spoke with Carol. She didn't have a great night. She actually had gotten tangled and could not reach the call button to summon help. She could reach the phone and called me but by the time I talked with her, she had already received assistance. To make matters worse, she didn't sleep well and woke up with a fever this morning. Let's keep the prayers coming so that things will settle down for her.

Special Note - Dave

When I posted Tuesday night's update, all was posted OK. When I posted again Wednesday morning early, I received an error message but it appeared to work. Now I see that it overlayed the Tuesday night post. Unfortunately, I don't have the contents or I would repost it. But I had earlier saved all comments to share with Carol so even if your comment is not there, she will see it.

Update 9pm Wednesday by Dave

When I left Carol this evening she was still doing quite well overall. She was very uncomfortable sitting up in the chair, but not because of her chest, but because her tailbone was hurting. This caused some angst on her part, but overall did quite well in the chair.

I didn't get a chance to post this earlier because it is hard to type much on the Blackberry, but the move from ICU was interesting.....They decided to do the move using the "patient chair" from her room. This is a special chair for her to sit in (yup, the same one that is so uncomfortable) and it has castering wheels on all four points so it can be easily moved in any direction. In fact, too easily moved.....For short moves, the wheels are great, for anything over 5-6 feet you would have thought we were slipping and sliding on ice out of control. We went the 350 feet or so careening from side to side down the hall, barely avoiding strategically placed obstacles. One nurse had the IV stand and chest tube collector, the other tried to steer using the handle on the middle back of the chair and held a portable monitor (much like a TV). I was carrying 2 bags of personal belongings. After we slipped and slid a bit and ran over the chest tube hose and wrapped it around the wheel (that was real fun getting undone without causing any pain), I took over steering and used the back of the chair instead of the narrow handle. Since I weighed over twice what the petite nurse did, I had, shall we say, a little more mass to control things with and we did the last 250 feet or so without hitting anything or anybody.

Needless to say, none of us would have been awarded a license if we drove like that for the DMV.

Carol was a bit frustrated with the incentive spirometer as it turns out she wasn't doing as well as she thought.....but it was still much better than expected. I'll bet tomorrow she will be getting even better with it.