Wawa

After a night in a bed at the League House, I ran back here this morning at 5:30 (stopping briefly to inhale the jasmine that grows on a brick wall on the side of the road), really eager to see Parker. His nurse, Zhan is so negative and bossy to me. Her first words weren't Hello, or He's doing well, NOTHING positive.... this girl definitely needs a lesson in dealing with family members. She scrunchde hereyebrows together, shook her head and snapped, Well, I can't get him to go to sleep, he just stares, but he won't sleep.

I wonder if it occured to her that he's been asleep for almost two weeks and might be trying to figure things out? Oh and her first words to me yesterday were, Rob let his temperature get up to 102!.... Rob was his day nurse.

Sorry, had to get those gripes out of the way. She really annoys me. I just think part of a Critical Care Nurse's job should be to understand how each family needs communication that will help them deal with this the best. It is a management thing, pretty simple.

His temp is good, Zhan said with the cooling blanket he stayed under 100 all night. His BP was really close to normal, 128/99 which is high on the bottom, but it had been so low on the bottom I am not sure what the difference is. (Any of you nurses out there who have been SO helpful with your information, please let me know if this is okay that it jumps all over the place, and when do I need to be concerned.)

His ventilator that is hooked up to the trach is set for 12 breaths per minute. He is breathing over it, up to 20 breaths per minute, which I THINK means he is initiating his own breath but still breathing a little heavy. Yesterday they turned the ventilator off for 4 1/2 hours for him to breathe on his own, but she said he was exhausted after that.

His kidney function is good, white cell count coming down (I couldn't see the written thing on the wall, but last night it was 10.8 and Zhan said today it was "coming down").

He did pull the bulb off the tube that drains the cyst from his pancreas, and her concern was that it meant she had to clean him up again after she had already bathed him. I wonder how she would have handled the night the NG tube spilled bile and green mush all over him TWICE! But I need to ask the doctor this morning if that is going to risk another issue with that cyst like we had last week, and what we should be looking for as signs to take action again.

Parker was fairly alert this morning and when I took his hand he kept mouthing some words over and over.

Wawa ... Wawa....

I'm pretty sure he wasn't asking to see Barbara Walters, so I asked if he was wanting water. He nodded his head. Zhan said no, he can't have it because of the trach. So I am going to ask when he will be able to have water. I think people eat with those things in, right?

I explained he couldn't have water just yet and that I knew it sucked to be all hooked up like he is. I did tell him he'd had several surgeries, and had the vent tube taken out of his throat because it was so uncomfortable. That's why he had the tracheotomy. Once I said that he seemed resinged, closed his eyes and went to sleep. But he wouldn't squeeze my hand.

When he wakes up again I'm going to tell him his Dad will be back on Friday. I know that will make him happy.