Saw Bill around 11.30am at the ICU (Shirley, new room # is 6330). Abby was already at the hospital. He was breathing on his own and was more awake and alert. Talked to Dr. Luisiri, Bill's rheumatologist, for about an hour. He was very emotional and said things like he felt depressed and guilty. He had not been visiting Bill as often as he wanted (about once a week), for a variety of reasons. He was contrite. He feels he let Bill down. Bill trusted him to a point of canceling his UCLA Scleroderma Center appointment in 2010 December. It has been a rude awakening for Luisiri that, in spite of his own very optimistic and confident prediction that Bill could be restored to 70% of pre-existing functioning level, he had taken a precipitous downturn.
Luisiri does not believe any experimental drugs will help Bill. Bill is too weak to try, he feels. He still promised to talk to Dr. Furst. Hopefully next week.
Abby said the doctors were debating whether to put a pace maker in Bill in order to prevent future problems with the heart.
As of 6pm, I heard that they were still debating...
Kris
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