Today was an uneventful day, which is perfectly fine by us. Michael walked around, we watched an episode of a favorite tv show, and he slept a lot. He also ate three small hospital-provided meals today with no problems! His innards didn’t act up and his blood sugar stayed reasonable, so it was a successful test run. 

The diabetes management team stopped in after breakfast and said they would like to see how he does continuing to eat soft food again tomorrow, but this time without the extra IV nutrition they’ve been giving him.  That’s the best way to see where his insulin and other blood sugar-supporting medications might need tweaking before sending him home. They said his labs continue to trend toward their goals for him so Michael’s overall nutritional and insulin needs are definitely coming into clearer focus. There are also more signs that the fluid retention issue is resolving itself, so we’re really glad to see that as well. 

There’s really nothing else to report because it was such a quiet day (an absolute godsend that neither of us are complaining about lol), but here’s an anecdote from this evening that shows how far he’s come. I’m at the hospital for every shift change so I end up hearing report as Michael’s day nurse hands him off to the night staff. The first few days, his report lasted longer than a screening of Gone With the Wind because there was so much to say. This evening it was two sentences. He’s doing so well that there’s hardly anything they need to tell each other! 🎉

That said, I do want to make sure I give a clear picture of Michael’s overall recovery so no one is surprised the next time they see or talk to him. I spend the majority of these posts talking about the technicalities of his medical issues because I want to keep everyone in the loop on any physical symptoms or issues they’re treating since those are the things that determine when he gets to go home and I know that’s what we’re all waiting for. 

However, in doing so I don’t want to give the impression that he’s full of pep and energy because he definitely is not. His energy levels are appropriate for where he is in his recovery but he is not currently the Michael you’re used to. He gets winded walking to the bathroom. He needs help arranging pillows or coming to a sitting position. He falls asleep mid sentence. He’s pretty tightly wrapped in brain fog. These things are very, very normal after what he’s been through but I imagine anyone seeing him for the first time might be a little caught off guard by his sagging energy because I’ve been talking about how much he’s walking around, etc. But for every three-minute walk around the unit, Michael needs an hour or so of rest and sleep. 

He will be back up to full strength soon enough but it will take some time to get there. His mind wants to pick up life right where we left off before we came here, but his body is definitely not on board with that plan yet. We don’t know what his at-home recovery regimen will be but I expect the doctor will want him to focus hard on resting at least until we come back for his two-week follow up and I wouldn’t expect to see him ripping around Publix or going back to his multi-mile walks at the park for a while after that.  

We’ll see the lead surgeon again tomorrow morning and I’ll pop in here soon after to let you know how it went. ❤️