3:16 PM Update

Paul is having trouble sleeping through the night which definitely affects his moods. Today he is having a hard day and still would like to get outta there.

His red blood cell count is low and his white is high. Low red usually indicates bleeding somewhere so he will have a blood transfusion. The high white count could be from the recently removed spleen but he will be having a cat scan on his belly to double check everything.

Paul had a central line put into his neck and unfortunately has developed a staff infection. He is on antibiotics for this and the line has been removed which will result in more needles.

In spite of all the things going on none are serious enough to put off surgery--good thing. They will be giving him a sleeping pill or as they referred to it, "a coma in a pill" to make sure he gets a good nights sleep and is well rested before his surgery.

Tomorrow he'll go into surgery around Noon, surgery will take 4 to 5 hours and then he'll have a few hours in recovery. Tomorrow's update will likely be late and short.

The good news for today...he is cleared to eat anything he wants. Unfortunately nothing is tasting all that great and for now he is only able to eat very little. He got a milkshake, turkey sandwich and cheetos. He hasn't got the root beer float yet but did have root beer and unfortunately it didn't taste all that swell to him.

Paul is cleared from bed rest and will be able to start physical therapy once he's recovered from his scapula surgery.

Paul is still in the Intermittent Care Unit which is why he must be in a shared room. At this level patients must have a nurse with them in the room at all times. He called No No at 7:00 AM this morning to try to hire a private nurse. She did look into it for him but it's a no go.

Paul Taylor will be coming to visit tomorrow and Paul Morris is convinced that he will break him out. Good luck PT.

Kathi, along with UCSD, are working on transferring him to the Palm Springs area. Eisenhower is unable to take him as they are not a trauma hospital. They are currently working on transferring him to a Palm Springs trauma hospital. Once the other hospital agrees that they can take him and he's stable after surgery he'll be hitting the road.

One bright spot for Paul today is the DVD player that Mark & Karen DiRe sent along with a bunch of movies. This should help to pass the time. Thank you DiRe's!