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1/30/17 noticed this was still in draft form....This
morning, at 6:00AM, George woke me up to use the urinal. I’m not sure how many times I got up to do
this in the middle of the night. I have
learned to do this with as minimal effort as possible so I don’t fully wake up
and can go right back to sleep. At this
moment, George said, if you’re up to it, you can take me to the bathroom and I
can do more, and you can give me a sponge bath to clean me up a bit. I am sure my eyes probably rolled a little
bit as I thought, “It’s only 6AM!” I did
speak up and say, if you can wait a little while, I’d rather not do that right
now because then I will fully wake up – and I’m not ready to do that. How about one more sleep?” I chuckled to myself and said, “You know when
the kids are little and looking forward to something you tell them, “just 4
more sleeps(nights)” but in my case I just need a little more sleep and then I’ll
be ready.”
About
an hour later we were “up and at ‘em”.
Got George into the bathroom and while he sat on the toilet I did a light
sponge bath, washed his face, let him brush his teeth. Then we put on a clean gown and actually took
a stroll around the “short block” (half way down the hall is a passage between
the two side of the floor, so we went through the passage and back towards the
room). George then sat up in his chair
for a bit as well.
Once
back in bed he asked to get an Ativan because he was so tired. He was complaining of having hallucinations
and waking up startled. Not sure the
cause of that – whether drug induced or chemically (anemic) induced. It took about two hours for him to stop
jerking and twitching and he fell into a deep sleep. Slept pretty good for nearly six hours (aside
from two potty breaks but he doesn’t have to get out of bed for those cuz Nurse
Dawn is to the rescue)! He has hardly touched
his PCA (personal pain management) today.
He says “well, when I don’t move it doesn’t hurt so I don’t push it”. I told him that all week he has been laying
in bed and I would see him reach over and push the PCA button – so in that
regard the only thing that has changed is your need to push the button! So that was a good thing as well.
We
heard from his nurse late in the morning that the on-call surgeon had stopped
in upstairs and told them the changes that would take place today – but he did
not have time to visit George because he got called back to surgery. It was nearly 5PM by the time he stopped by
the room. Here are the changes that were
made today (1) Cap off the G-Tube (YIPPEE, NO MORE GREEN GOO LEAKS!), (2) food
by mouth! George could pick his starting point and opted for the full liquid to
start reintroducing foods to the belly, (3) vitals every 8 hours instead of 4
during the night to allow for sleep. [He
thinks the hallucinations were due to lack of sleep and believes that George
keeps slipping right into REM sleep and wakes up in REM sleep so he is skipping
the other sleep cycles – thus, need to allow for more uninterrupted sleep.),
(4) bandage removed from over the sutures to allow them to air dry, (4) cut
back on IV fluids (to reduce the amount of times he has to pee - - he has been
urinating up to 6 times PER SHIFT with 1300-1500cc’s output during the shift. (5)
Ativan at night to sleep more soundly, at least for a day or two.
George
started slow – some sips of ice water, ¼ cup of milk and small container of
sherbet. He now has his Ativan and is
fast asleep. I will follow suit shortly
myself so I can do some catching up as well.
He said tonight that he actually felt better like he was starting to get
his energy back.
I
was surprised that the diet was ramped up so quickly and was prepared for the
tube feeding to start back up. Hoping
the TPN can stop or reduce soon because that I think is the biggest source for
the urine output (it is like a gallon of fluid pumped in over a 24 hour
period).
So
it finally feels like we have turned a corner and I pray, really pray, that
there are not setbacks. If we can
continue on this course then we might be able to go home mid to late week. Dr. Bastidas will be back on duty tomorrow to
reassess and since there has been positive progress over the weekend may
actually start to consider speculation for what the rest of the week will look
like.
Time
for beddy bye. I can feel my eyes
closing and am not even going to try to keep them open much longer. Good night one and all – the Haskins are out
for the count - - -for as much as is possible given current conditions.
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