"Day 17" Staying Positive

So they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Just snapped this of Ray . The hair is all gone now but isn't he a cutie?  He's hooked to wires on the right monitoring his heart, oxygen & breathing. On the left to an IV pole with several bags of stuff dripping into him. The hands have multiple large blisters caused from all the fluid retention & they're now erupting thus the wrapped hands.

Right now his throat sores are causing him the most pain. The wound specialist came in today to evaluate the sores & blistering on his arms & hands and tell us how we need to be treating those. She asked me if I would be willing to learn how to take care of them at home. Guess she doesn't know me very well does she? Of course I'll handle dressing them each day!

He pretty much parks himself in the recliner during the day, refusing to get back in the bed if he doesn't have to. He's not doing much walking of the halls anymore because of his wobbly legs & painful feet. They needed to up the pain meds so that makes him somewhat unstable as well. The swelling has subsided some now.
Through it all his sense of humor has remained intact. The nurses say he is a real trooper & they all just love to get assigned to him! And over the past 3 weeks we've been through lots of nurses. Even when he isn't their patient, they still make it a point to stop in & see how he's doing! What's not to love I ask you? :-)

I have hung up some of his cards around his daily progress calendar hanging in his room. He has received many more over the past couple of months. Between those & all the Facebook & email well wishes & prayers, it does make him feel loved. THANKS EVERYBODY!

Originally the doctor had thought that Ray would be able to go home today but it just wasn't meant to be. The blood counts are slowly rising so his doctor said this morning that the goal is to be able to release him from the hospital this Saturday. We hope so cause that would mean he's BETTER!  By then she expects him to have turned around & gotten much better. So we're now starting on our 4th week here & hopefully the final week.