Barry Updates in Boulder

WEEK THREE
Week three began with a move up to the third floor out of the Intensive Care Unit. Barry had progressed to a private room where he would get his own meals and could get up on his own and go to the bathroom. But he still needed someone in the room, 24/7. During the day that was no problem. At night, at least one person stayed with him throughout the night. Barry did not sleep well at night and consequently his room partner didn't get much sleep either. Barry still had IVs for both antibiotics and nutrition and they caused him to be restless at night. The one thing that the ICU provided was a round the clock nurse solely for him. That luxury was no longer available.

Barry was allowed soft food but he couldn't get rid of the IVs until he started eating regularly. They were counting his caloric intake and at first, he wasn't eating much. A little of this and a little of that. And it was hospital food. Barry started making requests for foods from around the town and we all gladly obliged. So he started eating pizza, burritos and such. And as the week progressed, he began to eat more and eventually the IVs were removed. This event was significant because they were having trouble finding a good vein and it was a tremendous irritant.

The big event of the week was Fourth of July. And the story I am going to relate, please don't tell anybody because the hospital staff got into a little trouble over it. The paramedics that brought Barry originally into the hospital were two young women and they had visited Barry on more than one occasion. A day or two before the 4th, they were visiting and the conversation came up about what we were going to do to watch the fireworks. We were either going to take Barry downstairs to the park or up on the roof. The two young paramedics volunteered their services to take us over closer to the fireworks by ambulance. We were quite a sight the night of the 4th. Barry was loaded on a gurney and we started out of his room when a nurse intercepted us and added a couple of IVs. The paramedics placed the apparatus on the side of the gurney rather than wheel a tree with us. And off we all went. We arrived at an open field and watched the fireworks from there (pictures are below). Our vantage point didn't turn out to be that great for the fireworks but that was not what was important. Barry was able to get out of the hospital, he was able to enjoy the fireworks and we all had a great time. Unimportant was the fact that insurance-wise, we probably could have gotten into a lot of trouble if something had gone wrong. Oh well, we sure had a great time and so did the two young women.

Another change occurred during this week. We moved our base of operations from outside the hospital to the third floor. It occurred for several reasons but mainly because visitation with Barry was easier and there was a room available with a television and computer hookup. Barry now had at least one and usually more people in the room with him all the time.


Nate and Jill taking down
the pictures in the ICU room.
Barry taking his first steps down the hall with Bryan, Colby and the physical therapist nurse. He didn't clear the doorways by much.
We had to show Barry off at the ICU shortly after he moved upstairs and this is a shot of Courtney, Joyce, Colby and Wayne wheeling him down the hall of the hospital from the ICU. Notice the hospital was under a major renovation.

Joyce in the Family Waiting
Room on the 3rd floor

And Courtney was incognito while checking her email

The nurse stopped us as we were escaping from the room and attached an IV to Barry. The paramedics removed the bags from the tree and attached them to the gurney instead. And we made our escape.


We found an open field and that is where we camped to watch the fireworks

And Joyce and Jerry relaxed

Click HERE for Weeks 4 and 5.