Happy Sabbath! Austin’s Progress from Friday

Good morning!

It’s a rainy, cool day here in Knoxville, Tennessee, but the birds outside are tweeting like it’s sunny and fair! That’s a lesson for our attitudes, right! 🐦

Austin’s Progress

I know what you’re here for–to find out how Austin is doing. I thank you for your care for him.

Just a side note before I go into that–my little podunk blog gets a steady, but small, amount of traffic. Yesterday, over five hundred of you stopped by, and the blog exceeded a thousand views. So…yeah…that’s all for Austin. (And the fact that a post glitched, which I’m sure led to a few more clicks while people tried to find where it went). Thank you for checking in and continuing to pray!!

Back to Austin

Friday morning Austin woke up exhausted. Through the night he suffered major frightening hallucinations. He was very vocal and remembers much of what he dreamed. The nurses quickly stopped the lidocaine infusion, which they told me commonly has hallucinations as a side effect. Pair that with the other meds he’s on, and who knows what interactions he was suffering!

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He didn’t much care for flying around the room and everything else that was much worse than that imagery.

Transfer

They discontinued his oxygen yesterday morning, saying he was doing well. Austin got transferred down to room 720 at around noon.

Right after meeting his new nurse, Austin closed his eyes and said he felt bad. Said his heart was racing. In fact, he stated that it felt like it was running around 140. He looked like he was struggling with his breaths. Thankfully that nurse took him seriously and put a pulseox probe back on. He was running high–not quite 140’s (while lying in bed), but around 120-130’s. But it was his O2 sats that I noticed. 89, 88, 86…the nurse stepped out to grab the oxygen tubing and just got him back on that. The sats came back up quickly, and the pulse came down just as quick. He’s just not yet ready to fly free of that oxygen yet. I say just let his body rest and give him what he needs for now. He’s a hero enough.

Coincidence

On that same note (letting his body rest), Austin has been having some trouble, and a tiny bit of worry, over his bladder. It’s also not back up to speed.

Well…wouldn’t you know! His nurse also happens to be a urology nurse practitioner. So he walked again through what to expect, the fact that his bladder also needs to rest and recover. He said that many times we take the Foley catheters out too soon, but that it actually makes more sense in this case to leave it in until Austin’s more ready to actually do something. Like get up–like without an army helping him. That explanation brought some relief.

Pain

Yep, pain is still the issue.

It’s the broken leg and the ribs and his broken scapula that are causing the pain. It’s almost impossible to find a position where something isn’t getting pressed on and hurting, so we settle for tolerable right now.

OT got him up to the chair again. The process is trying, and sweat-inducing for Austin, but once settled in, he tolerates it pretty well. It’s gut-wrenching to hear him when they move him, though. It’s that right shoulder and arm that really hurts. Way more than the other one. But the guy Austin works with told me that the bar was resting on Austin’s shoulder there, so there’s more going on than just the fracture.

Austin’s been trying to rest/sleep when he can, but as anyone who’s ever tried that in a hospital knows, it’s kind of a joke. Just when you get settled in, someone barges in and jars you out of your blessed slumber. Over and over.

Food and drink

Poor guy just hasn’t had the stomach to eat. He tried a bite of breakfast and had to abandon that ship, experiencing more nausea. Lunch didn’t appeal to him. He did perk up at coconut water, and drank some of that. That will give him a little strength. He tried another Naked drink but didn’t get too far with that, despite thinking that a smoothie would be nice.

Finally at supper time, he asked to try a bowl of cereal. He did manage to down a bowl of fruit loops (how’s that for nutrition? Funny how hospitals don’t stock actually healthy food).

He’s been craving a strawberry banana smoothie. I crossed deserts and mountains (okay so not really, but getting lost in Knoxville with a dead phone/hence no GPS started to feel like that) to find him one. And once I brought it back, he tried 2-3 sips and couldn’t do it. 😢

I pray that Austin rested last night. I’m anticipating more visitors today for Austin. He will like that. Friends are a good distraction from his pain.

I didn’t take any pictures of Austin yesterday. Today I’ll make up for it. 😊

How about a family picture?

And everyone loves to see the boys, so here they are! 😃

If you’re just starting to follow Austin’s journey, start with this Facebook post.

Start here on Facebook

Then, you’ll find the recent updates on this blog.

Our Boy, Austin. Progress and Updates. (Thursday Morning Rehash)

Reckless Love, Austin’s Progress.

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