All righty then --

When I got to the ICU this afternoon I found out all the Adventures in Healing that Tom had been having since I had last been updated around 11 this morning. At that time, they'd given him another chest x-ray but hadn't yet interpreted the results. Turns out he was having some lung function problems (hence he really had reasons for not doing well with either the coughing or the breathing exercises), so they ended up putting in a couple lung tubes. (Geez, he gets rid of the chest drain this morning and they replace it with two more tubes in early afternoon.) They also gave him a temporary pacemaker -- it may turn out that he'll need one permanently.

NOW he can cough and, having been assured that his insides wouldn't fly apart, he'd been having some good productive gurgly coughs. (But tonight when I call to say goodnight, I'll read Spaw's comments to him.)

I had to wait in the lounge again when he asked to sit up more and they moved him to a chair so he could order dinner. The breathing tech was with him when I got back and had given him a refresher course in the tube he's got to inhale and exhale into and was giving him a decent workout on the other breathing dealie. (I think that's a technical term.) Anyway, since the lung work this morning, his performance was improving. I probably won't need the whip.

Around 5 p.m. he had his first real food since dinner before the surgery. His voice is still hoarse and quiet from the vent and it's hard sometimes to understand him as a result -- maybe that's why his dinner order got screwed up, not badly, but a bit askew.

At least tonight I can call him around 8:30 and say goodnight -- that's been one of the hardest things for me the last few nights. After all, last Thursday night was the first night in 23 years that I'd been alone in the house without him. We've been apart other times, of course, and he's spent nights in the house without ME, but that was a first for me -- and when we've been apart, at least we were able to talk to each other until the night of the surgery and last night.

A little later he asked to go back into the bed and since they kick me out to move him, I chose that time to head home with a detour to the laundromat to do a huge bag of laundry. I've got a lot of household stuff to get caught up on before he gets home. (He's never been able to stand seeing me do housework while he's around, so now's my chance -- and before anyone makes any smart remarks about that, he's done 99% of the cooking since we met, most of the grocery shopping, and a substantial amount of the laundry and tasks like litterbox emptying, etc. I do most of the decorating, cleaning and yard and garden work.)

Don't know when exactly he'll get out of the ICU into the step down unit, but it won't be tonight, so if anyone's planning on visiting tomorrow, please call first to see if he'll be available for visitation.

Gotta go feed and insulate the cat and then maybe feed myself. (No, DEFINITELY feed myself. Got designs on a bottle of retsina. Haven't had any in a long time and a friend made a pile of spanokopita for me and I've got salad fixin's in the fridge. Maybe a relaxing movie, too, tonight. I'm trying, I really am!)

Linn