This entry is dated Wednesday, November 14.  Apparently it didn't post from my iPad while at the hospital.  The previous entry is one I just typed on Saturday, November 17.  Now I know why people don't feel informed.  My apologies!

From our window we see the day breaking on Price Hill, Union Terminal, Fairmount, and Bellevue Hill Park. It's beautifully sunny, but the rising vapors tell us that it is a very cold morning. Cathy and I spent the night in a room by ourselves. It didn't start that way. From recovery, Cathy was brought to a shared room. A shared room is not a big deal, however, Cathy's roommate was a smoker, as were her visitors. The smoke smell was pretty overwhelming. Cathy did not complain about the smell, but she was a little bothered by the extremely loud profanity and the incredible amount of uncovered coughing that was going on.

Now, I'm normally a "roll with it" kind of guy, but all of this was a little excessive and would have been detrimental to Cathy's recovery.  Cathy would have been proud of me if she were a little more coherent because I was very persistent and insistent that she be moved. It worked!

Cathy slept a little. Her pain is pretty high right now. Those of you who know Cathy know how the extent of her pain tolerance. She spent most of the night at an 8. Valium helped to relax her muscles and made her tired. Dr. Manders made a surprise visit this morning (she said that she would be covering Thursday and Dr. Butterfield today) and confirmed that Valium would be the best way to go for pain management. Cathy's morphine button doesn't help much, but Valium relaxes the muscle spasms that are causing her pain. We're both all for less narcotics, too. Cathy has accepted the offer of higher Valium doses at greater frequency and has put her morphine button to rest. Hopefully, she will be able to sleep a little more and get up and walk around later today.