Kenny Update--March 27th

Kenny’s cough is better today. They started breathing treatments every 4 hours and are planning to continue them for the duration of his stay. He is back on the path of getting more calories in him. Jo and I had a conversation with the staff dietician and discovered that we can ‘special order’ almost anything. There is something called a high protein shake that he, get ready for this, LOVES. Extra calories, extra protein, extra carbs, extra cold, extra good for both the chocolate and vanilla kind. He has already put away 4 of them and I see a 5th in his future tonight. He has also eaten a part of a cheese Quesada today. His cell count needs some praying over. Platelets’ are the last to recover and took a drop since yesterday so he received a bag of them this afternoon. We joked with Kenny that we were just sticking apple sauce in him – it had the same look. His white cell count is on the rise but slowly. 300 yesterday and 400 today. At this rate we are looking at least another 3 or 4 days before we can make plans to leave.
The hospital will be adding a baseline breathing test for April 5th. He took one yesterday but with all of the issues that he has had the last few days they were not able to get a good reading. The coughing could be a rare side effect of the medication that he is currently receiving. It will be a difficult issue to diagnose if it is true.
Kenny was awake more today than he has been since this admission. We are planning to finish Men in Black tonight during dinner. He was able to get some geography finished today while I was at ‘work’. He seems to have started regain some of his strength and endurance. He/we are looking forward to spending a few days home before next Thursday rolls around. Because we have been here so much we are getting to know some of the staff and our way around the facility. Today I was mistaken for an employee of the hospital. When asked what I did here – I almost said that I was a mental patient that escaped so I could eat some cafeteria food. But I thought better of it. I hate to have security shadow me. I have found a coffee machine that I have full access to. The floor receptionist and I had a 20 minute conversation this morning on her arrival at work. I think we have had every shift nurse on the floor now – some multiple times. One of the nurses had heard of Kenny’s lack of eating and offered to make her famous homemade mac and cheese.
All in all everything is on the upswing for Kenny. As always Jo and I want to thank each and everyone of you for all of your prayers. We have had so many ask if there is anything that they can do for us and the answer has always been – PRAYER! Thank you!

~Ken and Jo~