Today in San Salvador...

Wednesday, February 12, 2 0 1 4...

Day 2 in Hospital de Mujeres.
The previous post from yesterday tells why we are here.

Walt slept off and on through the night.

His doctor had ordered a special nurse to be with him the entire night, so she would help him up to go to the bathroom.

   One time she was out on a break and he said it took him 3 times to call my name before he could rouse me to help him get up. (And I thought I wasn't sleeping very soundly.  Guess I was.)

This morning he's had a shower...which I was surprised he could get the IV intake (whatever it's called) wet.  He's been sitting up in a chair since he showered.

For breakfast they brought him a fruit plate, oatmeal in water (because they have him on a "no milk" diet), clear Jell-o, and orange juice.  He's still feeling a touch nauseous so he only  felt like eating the Jell-o, the bananas out of the fruit plate, and half of his orange juice.

We should have remembered from his December time in the hospital that the fruit plate is mostly papaya.  Neither of us like papaya.  There was also watermelon (and I think most people who know Walt know that he doesn't like watermelon because his Grampa Bide didn't like it. He says it's because watermelon just doesn't taste good.).   Since strawberries grow in layers plus with the seeds, they cannot be sanitized so we don't eat them in foreign countries.  So that left the sliced bananas that he could eat.  So I gave him the bananas out of my fruit plate to add to his. 
We try papaya again once in a while to see if we still don't like it. I did eat a few pieces this morning and it was tolerable. It's so inexpensive...just costs a few cents for a whole, huge papaya.

And now since breakfast, he has been talking with the nurse about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and about families being able to be sealed for eternity in the Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She says she has driven by our temple and thinks it is so beautiful.  She has also seen the missionaries in the white shirts and black name tags, but has never had the chance to talk to any of them.

After the first 15 or 20 minutes, she still wanted to hear more, so she sat down to listen.  She would like to have a Book of Mormon so President Petersen is going to call our temple recorder to bring one when he comes.  We have mine here, but, of course, it is in English.
It's nice she is assigned to this patient full time. During this conversation she has still been checking his IV's and whatever else needs to be done.

Walt is now having a mid-morning nap.

His cardiologist, Dr. López Winter came a little before 10:00. He said the tests show that Dr. Petersen is really dehydrated. (Dr. son Brian, I tried giving him fluids yesterday, like you advised on the phone, but I guess I didn't push enough.)
He said his sodium was just 128. 
"What is normal?" I asked.
"135-145," he told me.
  And his blood pressure was low at 100/50. 
Sometime between then and this morning it had risen to 120/60 and when Dr. López Winter took it just now, it was 130/60 which is good.  Pulse 68 which is also good.

His cardiologist is indicating here that his INR was a little high.

And when I asked him to pose with Walt before he left, he asked:
"Eileen, why do you keep taking photos?"

Walt responded: "We have our whole life in photos."
And I said: "Well, I post highlights of our life on our blog."
Then I told him I really liked his tie today, and yesterday he also had a lavender tie.
"I did?" he asked.
"Yes, a lavender tie with a blue shirt," I added.
[Correction added later: I was turned around. It was a lavender shirt and a blue tie.]
"All my ties are gifts," he said, continuing "either from my patients or my wife."

Just as he left to continue his hospital rounds, Presidente Eduardo Alas (Second Counselor in the Temple Presidency) called to see how Walt was doing.  Everyone is so concerned when their temple president is sick...especially when he's hospitalized.

Here is his nurse, Priscilla Candelaria Mejía de Villegas charting the progress of her patient: Walter Ray Petersen.

Presidente Jaime López (our stake president, and the full-time recorder of the temple) came to see how Presidente Petersen is doing.  Hugo Martínez had driven Walt to the hospital yesterday afternoon, and Jaime López had come right over to the Emergency Room when he was told.  They both helped keep Walt from getting off the bed when his fever was causing him to be agitated.

Here is Walt giving the Book of Mormon to Priscilla. Presidente López also brought the brochure from the Open House of the Temple from July 2011 that has great photos of the interior of the temple before it's dedication on Aug. 21, 2011.

We never know with whom we can share the second most important event that has happened in the history of this world. 
The first, of course, is in the Meridian of Time the birth, life, and Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. 
The second is the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which began in the Spring of 1820 when a young 14-year-old boy went into a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, New York, and offered a simple prayer to ask "Which Church is right?"
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, with the Father introducing His Son by saying: "This is My Beloved Son. Hear ye Him."
And now we are living in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times.
  Of these truths we testify, in the Name of Jesus Christ.
       Walter Ray Petersen and Eileen Albertson Petersen

We hope you are having a good day wherever you are.
Thank you for the many prayers for Walt's recovery.