A Heart-y Good Morning

Howdy all - it's a new day in the ICU, and the Mister is entirely ready to make like a tree and leave.  He reports being a bit crabby upon awakening early this morning - I missed it, thank goodness. When I arrived, two of his buddies were already here and cheering him up.  Thanks guys!

The cardiologist and the nephrologist have both been by to see him this morning, and there is much to celebrate.  He has been pretty stable ever since being admitted on Wednesday, so they are moving him out of ICU later today and up to the cardiac care floor.  Still a lot of hovering and monitoring and stabbing with sharp objects, but at least he will be allowed to get up and walk around and make use of standard plumbing apparatus.  Enough said.

More good news - his lungs are clearing, meaning that the fluid buildup associated with congestive heart failure is subsiding.  He is able to lie down now - while not completely flat just yet, certainly more horizontal than he's been in at least a week. 

Now the less good news.  His creatinine level is increasing which is not a good thing (see earlier post).  It is 2.7 today, whereas it was 2.3 yesterday.  It has to be under 2.0 before they will do the heart cath - too much concern about further kidney damage.  The very nice nephrologist said that she isn't surprised by the increase and she is confident that it will peak today or tomorrow then start coming back down by Monday or Tuesday.  Until it's below 2, they can't do squat.

The dietitian came by a little while ago to go over his new "heart-healthy" diet that he is expected to follow, from now and forever, right up until the Rapture. 

I must pause here to share a word of irritating irony.  For the last six months, we have been zealous about elimination of all gluten, processed foods, sugar, faux sugar, inks, dyes - if God didn't make it, we ain't eating it.

But God DID make salt, and by gum, that's got to go too.  As the dietitian rattled of the list of no-no foods, it became increasingly clear that future meals at our house will consist of a wide range of lettuce and cucumber varieties.  The children will be so pleased.

I think he is discouraged that this adventure is stretching out into a longer stay than he'd hoped, but he is also slowly coming to the realization that this wasn't just an episode of bronchitis or bad gas.

I will give an "end-of-day" report before I turn in tonight, assuming that nothing exciting happens between now and then.  Happy Friday, y'all -