Thank you, Christine for all the good informstion. You are very generous with your time in helping others!

Physically, Harry is doing better. He is getting good nutrition with the ng tube, so he is stronger. He went walking around the floor today at a pretty good clip. The swelling is way down. His neck incision is looking very good. Too bad that they will likely be cutting again. They said that they might want to get the plate out from inside his mouth, because they want to avoid further risk to his one open carotid artery (the other side closed without incident a few years ago.) But, we will have to talk about that in more detail.

Mentally, he is becoming more accepting of the idea that he will likely need more surgery and that it won't be pleasant. But, he said that he wants to be sure that it is used only as the last resort. We will have lots of questions for the main guy on Wed.

I know that my role as a caretaker is especially important in the hospital. Yesterday, I had to fight to get the feeding tube approved so they could start the feedings. They tried to tell me that the feedings would have to wait for another day because the radiologist had gone home and the network link to the affiliate hospital was down, so they couldn't verify the proper placement of the tube. I refused to accept that the feedings would wait for another day. I told them that, if necessary, I would personally drive the film to the affiliate hospital. Shortly thereafter, they figured out a way to share the picture. They had to make an adjustment to the tube and, finally, they were able to start the feeding.

Then, the hospitalist doctor was allowing his blood pressure to go way too high. He had three successive high readings (each over 185). Each was reported to the doctor and each time he said that it was okay. When the next reading was 208, I told the night nurse that I wanted to talk to that doctor if he refused to prescribe something again. She handled the problem herself by telling him that she was responsible for this patient and she needed him to prescribe some medication NOW. Good for her! Since then, it has been back under good control.

Today, I had to press for hours to get his room changed so he could get away from the roomate who was constantly on the phone, talking incessantly for 18 hours a day.

Harry likes it when I advocate for him. I think it makes him feel that he is cared for. He tells me that he appreciates these efforts because he couldn't possibly handle them himself.

By the way, I will be discussing these incidents with the hospital. What would happen to a person who doesn't have a caretaker watching out for them?!

Thanks again for your caring and your help.

Anne