Visiting the Contagious

With Scott's help, I was able to visit Marvin the last two nights. We didn't go into the room, however, but it didn't make much sense to do that. He is highly contagious in the MICU at Sharp. He was sleeping, not communicating much. But today was a different story.

I am on my way back to Oakland, so I thought I'd give it another try. I actually found parking at the hospital -- a minor miracle, it seems -- and walked in, got my visitor's badge, and went to the fifth floor to the MICU, the contagious wing of the ICU. He talked to me, looked at me, but his responses didn't make much sense. Still, I was happy for the contact.

They have been talking about moving Marvin to the other ICU, the less-intense ICU, but the cardiologist won't sign off on the move because the drugs he's on keeps giving him arrhythmia. He's receiving great care, so what do we care?

I talked with James, the PA, again this morning. He asked me some questions: Did he get a flu or H1N1 shot? I don't know but I doubt it. Does he have an advanced care directive or living will? Not as far as we know. Believe me, I said, we've been talking about this the last few nights. However, he may have a will in his computer; whether or not it's been activated by a lawyer, I do not know. Ricky will work on the computer in the future to try to dig it up.

Right now, though, that doesn't seem all that necessary. He's improving.