Here's a message I received second- or third-hand from a friend of Bill and Sue's. The writer is apparently the wife of a member (Blade) of Bill's bike club in San Angelo. They call Bill "Spook," for obvious reasons.

Here's the message:

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Just got back from Tyler where I spent the evening with Sue. Blade didn't go today so that Sue and I could hang out for awhile. An hour of the evening we spent with Spook. He really looks good. He keeps his eyes open a lot and does focus on your face, the TV, etc. He doesn't track movement. If you move, he kind of has to hunt for you and then focuses again.

He is no longer on IV pain meds. His arms and legs are still very swollen. The doctor told Sue that they put about 50 pounds of fluid on him when they were fighting the staph infection. And although Sue hasn't gotten to have a good talk with the doctors over the weekend, she believes the infection has been cleared up since Spook is no longer on antibiotics. His kidney function is great now and he is slowly getting rid of the fluid.

He is still in isolation but that is for his safety. Spook still has the trache and is on the vent but he breathes a lot on his own and they are weaning him off again, slowly this time. He coughs now and rarely has to be suctioned. At one time he had two chest tubes but they removed them last week, then had to put one back in on the right side this time. Sue said it drained over 700cc in 30 minutes. That's almost 3 cups! Anyway, that chest tube is still in.

He has started moving his arms and legs again. When I tried to lift his arm I could feel the resistance. He didn't want me to move it. When I started to let go of his hand, he held on. Not tight, but he squeezed enough to hold on.

He is still on the blood thinner for the clot in his groin. They are just trying to dissolve it slowly. Not in any hurry since Spook isn't moving around a lot - yet. The staff has a "coma scale" they use to assess a patient in a coma. 0 is totally comatose and 15 is awake. Spook is at a 9. So he is taking baby steps.

He did get his new glasses in the mail from the VA. His hearing aides are on the way. They were waiting to get the ear molds but Sue told them to send them on. They can make do with what they send.

His leg is open to air now and still has a wound vac to keep the wound clean. There is only one dime size area open to the bone now. But there are no signs of infection and the bones are healing. They take him to surgery to clean it. It was done last Friday and plans are to clean it again Tuesday.

There has been no more talk of changing hospitals. They are now saying that they will just move him out of ICU to another unit on the 4th floor. Sue is satisfied with that plan. She is so happy with his progress and is hoping to be able to spend more time with him in the new unit.

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As usual, if I hear more, I'll send it to y'all.

~ Boyd