Jim's Health

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I had a wonderful Christmas with my family, but I felt horrible about leaving

Jim for a day to be with my family. I did not have time to visit with him on

Christmas Eve, as that is the day that we celebrate and open gifts and I had so

much to prepare and get ready to bring to the big event. My oldest daughter had

Christmas Eve at her house and did a fantastic job and had a wonderful dinner

for us all.

My sister spent the night at my house on Christmas Eve night and the next

night and left early this evening. We went to visit Jim on Christmas night and

he was in good spirits, even wanted to get out of bed for awhile. My sister

gave him a balloon ball for Christmas. It looks like a balloon, but has the

surface of a ball. We all hit the balloon back and forth. It was great exercise

for Jim and he seemed to have fun with it. He also ate his dinner well.

This evening I went in to visit him and he was so weak. Entirely different

from the night before. He could bearly sit up. His blood pressure was 90/70 and

he almost passed out. He was shaking and could hardly hold his head up to drink

liquids. When Jim's blood pressure drops at the hospital they put him on

Potassium Chloride to get it up again, I thought that maybe putting some salt on

Jim's dinner would give him some chloride, sodium chloride, and he also had a

banana on his dinner tray and that was potassium, so I fed him the salty dinner

and the banana. He ate a good portion of it and drank two full glasses of orange

juice, which is good to get the blood sugar up. The nurse took his BP later and

it had gone up to 110/90. jim was not shaking so much either. He still seemed

very weak though and I hear all kinds of mucus in his throat that he can not

cough up. He is too weak to cough it up. I bought some Mucinex. Has anyone here

used that for mucus/phlegm for their LO?

I bought it in Child's form, because it is liquid form and easy for Jim to

take. It is with Guaifenesin, so I figure it's ok to give to him. I am not going

to wait around for the doctor to ok it. Jim is nearly choking on his mucus. I

want to losen it up for him. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just feel so helpless to

help Jim and I feel like I am trying to communicate with an invisable doctor,

since I have never met Jim's doctor at the nh. I asked at the nh when the doctor

visits, but they said there is no routine day, the doctor shows up when the

doctor shows up.

I can only leave messages to the doctor through his advice nurse or have the

nurses at the nh fax the doctor. I feel like things are not being done quick

enough to help Jim. Some days are much better with Jim and I feel good and

tonight I feel like I am sinking.

I am on a 2 week vacation and I am going to spend it with Jim everyday all day

for the next few weeks to try and build him back up. Now, that Christmas is over

and I don't have that to think about too.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas a

wonderful holiday..................Jan

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