1/8 9:00 pm

Ethan had a pretty good day. He had very few episodes of  his oxygen dropping. We have been aggressive with chest percussion, frequencer, nebulizing, flushing and suctioning Ethan's chest. 

The frequencer leaves these weird circle marks on Ethan. Anyone who comes in his room inquired about it. It’s kind of fun to watch.  They look at his face, then they look at his bare chest. You can see the what in the hell? question  forming. Their eyebrows drip down and they get a glazed look in their eye. Some of them cock their heads ever so slightly. Some touch the spots. I have started to explain the spots to them.

“Ethan has started a new therapy. It’s the traditional ancient Egyptian therapy called cupping to draw out the toxins and loosen up his bronchial congestion.” I wait to watch them process the information.

“Really?” They all have said. Anyone I have said this too.

“No, it’s just from the frequencer.” I say and laugh. I am totally entertaining myself like an asshole. They probably want to kick me out.

Usually they share how they processed that information and how goofy it sounded. Some thought it was a new therapy. Ha!

If Ethan’s chest doesn’t look better in the morning, I am quitting, leaving him here and leaving him with bus fare to get back home. Not really but I likely will cry.

His nurse today put her all into it today. She is off for the next few days and is having a coworker text her a picture of his X-ray in the morning, which warms my heart. She also threatened to quit if the X-ray hasn’t improved.

One of Ethan’s cardiologists walked by Ethan’s room while I was using the frequencer. He almost stopped dead in his tracks. We made eye contact. He then went right over to the nurse and bent in close to her. They had a quiet discussion and he walked away. 

She later came in and shared that he thought I was doing some whacked out treatment with some device I brought from home. I was dying.

I then asked her how he would react if I asked at rounds tomorrow if he read the article about the correlation of using coconut oil with transplant patients to decrease recovery time and his thoughts on that. An article that doesn’t exist.  Just to see what his answer would be. We were laughing. I would never do that at rounds but maybe if it is just him and I in the room, I might decide to ask. He’s a ball buster so I think he can handle it.

He did start waking up again from the paralytic, even though the dose remained the same. He waved at his nurse, when he heard the nurse introduce himself. I kept having to tell him his eyes were taped shut because they needed to stay moist. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for him.

I did 15 flights of stairs today. I am hoping that I will be able to get up tomorrow. 

Another bright spot today, the sun was shining all day. I opened the window shade as far as it would go to let the sun blanket Ethan. Sunshine therapy. It never hurts.

And we keep moving forward.