In a regular room now... But he scared the h$ll out of me

Finally...

I think Jerry finally was brought down to the regular floor about 7:15 or so.

At about 5:45 or so, the volunteer that had been giving us updates since 3:30 said that they were doing the nurse turn over, and that he would be moved down shortly. MIL and I asked about going to get something to eat, and she said we had time, plus it would give them time to get him settled in.

So we walked over to the hotel on the Mayo property where MIL is staying because there is a restaurant there. BUT the restaurant is not open on Friday or Saturday night. We decided that we could go down the road a bit to get something to eat, and just as we got in MIL's truck BIL Toby pulled up next to us. We knew he was thinking about coming up earlier in the day, and he had called about an hour before saying he was almost here, but we still didn't expect him so soon.

MIL, BIL and I went to Denny's for dinner (yesterday's lunch was much better!)

When we got back Jerry was in his room, but you could tell he was in a lot of pain. He had tears in his eyes, and was gritting his teeth. The nurse was giving him his pain meds, and what not, but it wasn't getting better. We figured it hadn't had time yet to kick in, since she had just put it in his iv.

He asked if he could have a drink, or at least rinse his mouth out, and thats when he scared the H$ll out of me!

When they sat him up a bit to do that, he had sharp shooting pains in his left side of his chest, and could not breathe. Every time he took a breathe it got worse.

They checked his O2 stats and it was down in the low 80s.

The nurse called for Dr. Doogie Howser* who came and ordered an EKG, and Chest xray, as well as stayed until Jerrry was breathing normal again. Both the EKG and xray came back in the normal range (well normal compared to yesterday's EKG), so Dr. Howser* thinks that he had a air bubble under his diaphram that got shifted when they sat him up, that was causing the pain. I think between giving him another "shot" of pain meds, and sitting him straight up for the chest xray it helped. Dr. Howser* raised his pain medication, so that helps too. The plan is to stay on top of it tonight, and see how it goes.

Right now they have him on an oxygen mask, rather than the nasal canual that they had him in to start with, and its turned up pretty high, but they want to keep it there for a while tonight to make sure he stays ok. Dr. Howser* said that he will be around and in and out all night to check on him.

MIL went back to her hotel shortly after all the fuss settled down, after giving me orders to call her if we need her.

BIL went back to MIL's hotel room while I was at our hotel getting clothes for the night. I think Jerry was glad about that because BIL likes to talk and make jokes and Jerry isn't up for that.

I know Jerry is scared and worried, and in pain.

Know how I know?

Because normally he kicks me out of the hosptial room, back home to sleep.

Tonight I asked if he would be ok long enough for me to run to the hotel to get clothes to sleep in (other than my jeans and blouse I had on), and he said yes, but hurry back.

I know that normally we have the kids to think about, but this morning and yesterday both Jerry mentioned me going to the hotel to sleep, because it would be uncomfortable here.


*Dr. Howser, is a surgical resident here at the Mayo, and isn't really as young as the TV Icon, but compared to all the other Doctors we have seen this week, he is young! Kinda cute too, but thats besides the point. I really like him though, because he took the time to explain to us (Jerry, MIL, BIL, and I) what was happening and why he thought it was happening. He also explained about Jerry's stomach tube and the tests that they will run tomorrow, and Sunday, and why they will run them. That part was especially nice since everything Dr. B said earlier was a blur as far as that goes. He also impressed me because he called one of the other doctors on call and let them know what was going on, and asked if they had any other tests that they would run. As I heard him tell them, he knew that he was doing the right things, but in a case like Jerry's (the high blood pressure, and potassium issues) getting a second opinion right away just felt better.