Good morning to all the early birds. Jim had a good night. As I type, he is talking about Gatorade, orange juice and water. He just said, When I get done with this, Im going to go on some kind of binge drinking of ice cold water. He gets Gatorade sparingly but no free water or his beloved pellet ice. Last night he negotiated three, countem three, ice pellets in exchange for eating all the protein from his dinner. In response to the nurses offer of three pellets, he replied Im 66, 240 (lbs) out of Notre Dame, I need more than three ice pellets. When she said she would get in trouble with Dr. Brem if they didnt keep his sodium up, he said, Look. Let *me* worry about Dr. Brem. Hes a smart guy. Hes gotta understand a mans limitations. Dr. Brem loved hearing this story when he came by to see Jim at about 9:30 last night. Another highlight was that he felt well enough to talk to three of his best friends from college/Charlotte. The conversations opened up similarly: El Grande!, Biggest! and Bigs! Like many, they havent talked to him in over a week and you could hear the relief and love in their voices. Sarah E Gray actually cried happy tears when she noticed Jim laughed for the first time (since shes been here) while on the phone with Thold Gill. Hes been playing the straight man keeping us laughing. It was heartwarming to hear him reunited with some of his friends. He got tired by the third call. I know he would love to talk to all of his good friends. In due time. Thold asked him if he had any advice he wanted to share should he ever have to go into surgery and Jim told him he should negotiate how much Gatorade he can get before going into surgery and get it in writing. I spent the previous two nights at the hotel but stayed with Jim last night when I learned there wasnt a sitter available. We learned last evening that he has a blood clot around the femoral line catheter. Not a huge setback under normal situations and easily treatable with blood thinners, if you can take them. Jim cant right now. Dr. Brem said it would be game over if he is on blood thinners and has a bleed. Im not much of a gambler (Jim teases me that no one can lose $60 as fast as I can ) but this is an unavoidable risk we have to take. Jim loves the cards and I have them taped up in his room. Please keep them coming to the hotel, along with the prayers and positive thoughts. I will be heading to the hotel to recharge and let Jims dad spend some quality time with Jim after the doctors make rounds. Once we got Jim settled in from his 11:30 pm exit strategy he actually slept on and off. When the nurse told him this morning that he did great he wanted to know what his prize was.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 10:04:07 +0000