Update #105

The past 24 hours have been pretty rough. Because of the remaining congestion in his lungs, Dave has been coughing a lot since Thursday. Yesterday, he spent most of the morning coughing, and this morning, he woke up at 5:15 a.m. and coughed almost non-stop until 6:45 a.m. Dr. Weintz precribed an inhaler, which helped loosen up some of the congestion, and hopefully, we will also write an order for some cough syrup, at least so the coughing doesn't keep him up at night.

We also go word on Dave's X-ray to determine what was causing the extreme pain in his hip, and it looks like Dave's femur isn't healing at all. Because of the level of his pain meds (he has a pain patch on his shoulder that provides a constant stream of meds) up until this past week, he hadn't felt much pain from the break, even to the point that he hasn't needed any Oxycodone to supplement the patch. Earlier this week, however, Dr. Weintz decided to try to cut the level of meds in the patch in half, and over the course of the week, the pain from the femur started to break through. Dr. Weintz reincreased the patch, and by the end of the day yesterday, Dave was able to sit up in his wheelchair again. The X-rays from Thursday will be transferred to the orthopedic surgeon this weekend, so hopefully, we will have some information on the next steps for the femur (probably bone grafts sometime soon) on Monday.

Dave's red blood cell count has also been low again, so he received two more units of blood overnight. The blood (and all the testing that goes along with getting blood), combined with the coughing made for a pretty long night.

On the positive side (there is always a positive, in spite of how this post started), Dave is back to his target rate on his feeding tube and should be off the TPN again before Monday. The annoying cough is actually helping to clear his lungs (his chest X-rays look better and better), and he is getting stronger and stronger getting in and out of his wheelchair. Aside from being exhausted, he is still in good spirits and continues to work as hard as he can at the movements and exercises that don't cause him pain.

Please be praying that the cough will go away and that our meeting with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday will provide a plan to relieve the pain in Dave's hip. Also, be praying for Dave's sister Jen and her family who disappointingly couldn't come to Cinci this weekend because her kids have a cold.

More soon...keep praying!