Days 5 & 6

October 17, 2026by Debra Scoresby Palmer

On Friday, Tony was up walking at 6:30 am and did a full lap around the ICU ward. He couldn’t get comfortable in the recliner, so he moved back to the bed. He fell asleep and relaxed so much that his blood pressure dropped. The nurse came in, woke him up and had him sit up a little more so she could get an acceptable reading.

Tony was kind of cranky with the speech therapist. She arrived just as he was checking his voicemail messages for the first time all week.

The drain tube in his left arm was removed. Members of the surgical team also removed the drain tube from Tony’s right arm, then inspected and re-dressed the incision on his right leg. It looks like it is healing well.

Tony in his ICU bed wearing an oxygen mask, with his sister Debbie and brother Scott beside him

There was a frenzy of preparations before business hours ended on Friday, so we will have everything we need when we go home. I had to choose a home health service. I accepted delivery of the first case of nutrition to take home with us. We are now the proud owners of a brand new walker. (We should take bets on how long Tony uses the walker. 😆 We have to make sure to keep it, though. Insurance only covers one every five years.)

Tony dozed on and off Friday afternoon. He did two more laps around the ward. His sister, Debbie, and his brother, Scott, came up for a visit.

At 10 pm on Friday, a room opened up on the main floor, and our Warrior graduated from the ICU.

Saturday was a quiet, boring day. It was nice not having constant interruptions. Neither one of us wanted to do much except sit and exist. I sat for hours just enjoying our view out the window and the glorious sunshine. Tony finally settled on Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas movies on TV when he couldn’t find a movie he wanted to watch. He napped a lot. He walked around the hospital ward a few times. The room is cold, so he preferred the warm bed to the recliner.

View from Tony's hospital room of Salt Lake City, the valley and the mountains under a clear blue sky

Sunset from Tony's ICU room, with an orange glow behind the mountains, the city lights of the valley and the lit hospital helipad below

On one of his trips to the bathroom, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and commented on how rough he looks. I slipped out of the room to grab some food, and Tony’s nurse carefully cleaned his neck, removing the dried blood from around the sutures.

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Debra Scoresby Palmer

Debra has been married to Tony for 39 years. Together, they are the proud parents of five kids and five grandkids. She writes to keep family and friends close along this road, and to share Tony’s story in the hope that it brings strength to anyone fighting their own seemingly impossible battle.

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Telling hard news again on every call and every text wears you out. That's why we made this blog: one place for Tony's story, updates by email, and a simple way for friends to help. I built it with HBA's Funnel Builder by typing what I wanted in plain words. If your family is walking through something hard, you can have a place like this too.

Days 5 & 6

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