Final Update. Howard is in a room & at a computer maybe he will get on here.
FYI: The Chris in these emails in Howard's wife not me.
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I bet you guys are getting tired of these updates! I may just stop already when I make it to number 10.
We've "Graduated!"
Howard was moved late yesterday evening to what they call 12 Tower. The Tower is where the regular hospital rooms are and the 12th floor is specifically for transplant patients. Yesterday evening, one of his doctors came in to see him in ICU and caught him standing up, looking out the window. She said, "you know what?... you just don't need to be here." I happened to be out of the hospital at that moment, in the "real world" with a friend for the first time in two weeks.
I decided I would just find him later and went on to PF Changs and enjoyed myself very much! Thank you, Lisa!!!!!
His only real issue seems to be continued fluid in his lung cavity. He still has one drainage tube in and the docs have been reluctant to remove it for fear of giving him a collapsed lung. Yesterday, they hooked up this machine that looks like something from the 1930's... it's that nasty, metal "hospital green" kind of thing and sounds like a 24 hour vacuum cleaner. I mean it's LOUD and it's right by his head. It's literally giving him a headache. His doctor said that they see this large amount of drainage problem in young, healthy children and said it was really a good thing. That made us feel better. Maybe the "headache" can go away soon. In the mean time, the hose on it is long enough for him to walk into the bathroom and shut the door and get away from the noise for a minute. He's spending a lot of "quality time" in the bathroom!
Tomorrow Howard will have his second heart biopsy to check for rejection and if that continues to look good, I think they may start talking about throwing him out. Yesterday and the day before I would have been worried about having him home but today, seeing him puttering around his room, I'm feeling much better. I know he still has to prove himself to the Physical Therapists by walking and climbing stairs before they will release him. As soon as he can get unhooked from the "vacuum cleaner" he can hit the bricks.
That's all at this moment. The direct phone number to his room is now 832-355-3477. If you want to call, you can hear the vacuum cleaner too!
Later... Chris and Howie
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