There's still not a lot to report, but I'm much better. The doctors are planning to move me from DOU (extra care) to the regular hospital wing either later today or tomorrow. I'm much more alert and active than I was a week ago. And I've started a light bit of daily physical therapy, which basically means getting up and walking three feet to a chair. It doesn't sound like much, but sitting in a chair is surprisingly more tiring than lying in bed.
I'll try to walk a bit more today, but the one thing that hasn't improved very much is my breathing, which is still super shallow. It's very frustrating. Even the smallest movement has me immediately huffing and puffing, and I really, really want that to get better.
Hopefully this will start to respond to the PT pretty quickly. We'll see. The doctors are telling me I might be able to go home by Friday or the weekend. That would be nice.
UPDATE: Today's X-ray looks pretty good:
Bilateral patchy airspace opacities. Mild improvement of the opacity of the right upper and lower lung zone. No pleural effusions are seen. The cardiomediastinal silhouette is normal.
Excellent news. Glad you're on the upswing.
congratulations and hurray. i was truly sad and stressed during the days after you let us know and stopped posting. but i gotta say the "goodbye and take care of trump for me" was a bad ass way to close out, if had come to that.
Bad ass is right!
And a thing that astonishes me is the amazing output of great content while lying in bed with (I presume) a laptop.
Hallelujah!
Wahoo, Kevin may be headed home soon. Great news! Don’t over do it please. We are soooo grateful to have you back.
That's fantastic. Data nerds are few and far between. Must be frustrating not having clear answers but upswing is upswing.
Yes!!!
Wow. In your place I would definitely not be doing anything useful. And here you are cranking out all this great stuff.
I’m so glad you’re getting better! I had feared you weren’t coming back.
Love the update!!!
That’s great news, Kevin.
Is there a reason you can't have oxygen?
More of this, please.
Hooray! Glad to hear it.
Just absolutely delighted that you are getting better. What an ordeal, but I’m humbled that you shared it so honestly with us & glad it gave so very many of us the opportunity to struggle to put into words something of what you and your work (and the cats, of course!) mean to us. You are truly one of a kind, & I thank you, with all my heart.
So glad to hear it!11
Best news I've heard all year.
TBF it's been a rough year. But I'm very glad you're improving.
Great news!! And so impressive that you've kept up a stream of excellent posts while in the hospital. These are dark times and we need you!
Hurray!
Great to hear you're getting out of that bed. It's tough, I know, but NOT being in bed breaks the cycle of decline, and is a huge benefit to recovery.
a couple of years back, i was hospitalized for a week. reading your blog helped keep me sane. be well, kevin, be well.