Cranberries? Raspberries? Meh.

White blood cell count is down from yesterday, but still elevated. According to the samples they sent yesterday there's been no growth. But then Lauren (another one of our personal favorite day nurses who talks to us like we're people with above average IQs…which we ARE, I can hear your snarky remarks our there)… ANYWAY, Lauren was/is slightly concerned about some "stuff" Ray found in her lungs during suctioning. Remember Ray? He's the great respiratory guy who is also the head-shave helper. But the cultures don't show anything. Yet another mystery. Her temp seems to be OK today, but again, it just goes up and down willy nilly which is apparently very common with neuro patients. Essentially her brain is a bit of a faulty thermostat. I wish I could take credit for that analogy, but the credit must go to Josephine - you've heard about her before, she was the one who clued us in on the need for a head shave. That doesn't mean that the fever isn't a symptom of infection though. The GI's (gastroenterologists, not little green men, although I'd prefer that) came back, listened to her bowels and told us the intestines are still on break. So Pam is still off the snacks - at least until tomorrow.

Side note, Ray checked mom's trach tube and asked which thoracic and cardiac surgeon was responsible for the fine piece of work. We told him it was Dr. Howington and Ray's eyes widened as he said "he's the best". I pushed to see if he would go so far as to call him a "badass" but Ray didn't seem comfortable with that language. I am though, so I'll just say it, Dr. Howington is a badass. He also is kind of reminiscent of a shark, but a nice one because he comes with a slight Nashville drawl. Tall, skinny, icy blue eyes, quiet but you can tell he's ruthless. So between Howington (the nice shark) and Farhat (Mr. I Saved Her Life) my mom seems to be getting nothing but the best. Obviously. What else should Pam get?

Another side note, we've discovered Dr. Kuzniar (stoic German) is not German, but Polish. Still stoic, but I think he may be warming up to us. By warm, I mean we get a slight upturn of the lips when we see him now. He also stooped down to my level - when I sang to him "she's got a fever and we're worried about infection", he responded by singing back "I know". Made my day. I will make him my friend by the time this is over. To be fair, he may be stoic because he's tired, the man never seems to leave.

Lastly, yesterday while eating snacks over my mother and chatting mindlessly between the four of us, I made the comment that I feel raspberries are by far the superior berry to cranberries. Before DM had time to disagree with me, my mom raised her hand and flipped it back and forth - the universal sign for "eh, it's a toss up". Classic.

So in summary, temp is ok, not great. White blood cell count is better, not great. Infection is still a mystery. Lungs have stuff and she feels indifferent to cranberries and raspberries.

We're also ok, but not great as I'm sure you can all imagine. Sleeping every night. Drinking wine every night. Wondering where in the hell any of us got the strength to get through this and then realizing that for her we'd do anything.