Can't Leave Ken

This is Bev. Wow, Tuesday was quite a day for us. I woke up at 3:30 am and could tell Ken was watching TV in the living room. So I joined him. He said he couldn't sleep because his lung felt like it was getting fuller. So we watched a couple of old war movies. Peaceful morning. Then I decided to go to work. I get up, got ready, feed the dogs and the fish, I was ready to leave at 7:30. I told Ken to get up and move to the table so he could eat breakfast. (I am always worried about his meals.) He was sitting in the recliner in just his underwear and a blanket. When he moved the blanket and started to get up, he gushed from his right tube site. Wow, we moved fast. I got the gloves on and redressed his site. Everything was soaked, but he said he was ok, so I left for work. By the time I got to Harmony, I was crying. I stopped at Walgreens to get a few things Ken needed and called Linda C. She was great and talked me into staying home. She was right, I still needed to be home.
When I got home, all was well, but Ken said he was leaking a bit more. I had a dentist appt. at 11:30 for a crown fitting and didn't want to miss it, so we decided to wait till I got home to call the doctors. Ken is trying to be brave and wait as long as possible to get drained.
As I was ready to leave at 11:10, I went to kiss Ken goodbye and noticed that he was soaked again, this time thru his clothes. So again I moved fast, redressed him and his wound. He insisted that I go to the dentist. I called the pulmonary doc on my way to the dentist, then called Ken to check on him and called Steph to stand by if we needed her. I was crying and a wreck by the time I went into the dentist. It is so hard to leave him. The dentist hurried and finished in an hour instead of the scheduled hour and a half; ever heard of that?
By the time I got home, Ken had leaked thru 2 towels and was just sitting in his chair. Since the pulmonary doc wanted Ken to wait until Wed morning to come in, we called his surgeon, Dr. Stanton instead. By 4:00, we were headed to MCR to Stanton's office to see what we could do. Luckily, Ken was breathing ok still. I think he was leaking so much, that he wasn't completely filling up.
So, at the doc's office, we waited till almost 7 to get in. We found out we were waiting for Susan, the doc's wife and assistant to get there. She is great and worth the wait. They decided to attack the leakage. Susan took out Ken's old stitches and was preparing to put in new ones, when she made a mistake. She made Ken laugh. Normally this is a good thing, but this time, Ken was shooting yellow milky liquid out his now open wound. She jumped back and we were all laughing. Pour Ken was trying to stop but it was to funny. She said his nickname isn't squirt any more. Now it's gusher. She and the doc got him sewn up and made an appt. at the hospital at 7 am to drain him. But just in the time that he was getting dressed and we were making all the arrangements, Ken started breathing harder. They decided that since he was now not leaking, he probably needed to be drained right away. So we headed to PVH where there was a doc that could do the procedure.
I called Steph to come and feed the dogs. She has been a tremendous help. We were getting drained by 9 PM and home by 10. What a day. There just doesn't seem to be a way that I can leave him just yet. I think he is going to need to be drained every other day. I worry about his lung collapsing so often and then having to re-inflate. I hope this goes ok. It is hard to know the right things to do. But we are in it together and trying to do our best. Keep praying for us. Love all of you. Bev