September 17, 2009

Gene has been tired and running a temperature today.  His pressure is still at 24 and his oxygen is at 40.  For the first time he complained of pain.  Emily asked him if he was having any pain, and he said yes.  It seemed as though he was saying his buttocks hurt.  He had just been turned.  At any rate Emily requested some pain medication for him. 

This evening he was running a temperature  - about 100.4.  All his life his temperature has been a little lower than the 98.7 that is normal for most, so the 100.4 is a bit of a high temp.  They've given him Tylenol for the fever.  He had a difficult time focusing on anything today

Emily has been very conflicted about spending the night with him.  She only has a recliner to sleep on when she stays and  her back is really bothering her. It's very wearing on her to have her back hurt so much.  She also feels like she really needs to be with Dad at night when he is running a temperature.  She finally decided to go back to the hospital for awhile tonight, but not to stay.  She says she will call the nurse tonight before she goes to bed to check on him. 

Last night she spent the night at the hospital and was very uncomfortable. She came home about 4:00 AM.  In the night, we had a great big storm.  The concrete drainage ditch overflowed and came way up into the yard - all the way up over the garden and to the corner of the storage house.  It seems that an industrial size dumpster somehow floated down the ditch and lodged at the little bridge that goes from the Avenue to the Circle and blocked up the water flow!  Alan had the brilliant idea to go look at the name of the company on the dumpster and give them a call. (That was after a call to the city help line got a less than enthusiastic response).  Apparently they had lost several and came right away.  They assessed the situation and brought in the equipment they needed and got it carried away.  So if it rains tonight, perhaps the water will be flowing more freely and not be up in the yard.  So this morning, she stayed home until that was all taken care of.

Prayer Requests
Please pray for Gene to have healing and for his respiration to improve.  Pray for Emily's back to show improvement and for her to have peace about her decisions.