I was able to meet with Dr. Rutland this morning as well as the infectious disease physician. I'm pretty sure I made Dr. Rutland mad by asking about the fluid. That's OK, he'll have to get over it - I'm not going to give in.
Tom is doing pretty good. He has had his wound vac changed so I'm feeling better about that. His red blood cell count is pretty low so this afternoon he will be getting a couple of units of blood. They gave him Benedryl ahead of time so along with the Morphine he had for the wound change, he will probably be sleeping all afternoon. Hopefully the blood will give him some more energy too. If Physical Therapy comes, I'm not sure they will be able to do much with all the stuff he's hooked up to.
Dr. Rutland has ordered some more lasix for the fluid. I wish Tom were on both of the diuretic meds but I'll save that request for later. They are going to see how two doses of IV lasix do and then go from there. I asked the nurse about Albumin, but none has been ordered. Dr. Rutland repeated what he has said so many times about the Albumin not staying in the system very long and I repeated what I have said so many times and that is "every little bit helps!" I have the case manager and the Liver Center on my side about the Albumin too. Of course, they will watch to make sure the lasix doesn't upset his kidneys.
I asked Dr. Rutland if there was any "medical" condition keeping Tom in the hospital - well, besides the fact that he's getting blood today. He said that Tom would be there through the weekend and see what comes open as far as the skilled nursing facilities next week. I'm doing everything I can to keep things moving and keep Tom motiviated.
Tom has been complaining about pain "everywhere" but I'm sure after laying in bed for 2 weeks, everything hurts. Add to that the leg and all the fluid pressing on his nerve endings and I will not question how much he is hurting. They are trying to give him as little Morphine as they can get away with so if he can hold off until tonight, he can get some more to help "us" sleep.
It was midnight before they decided to just shut the wound vac pump off. It was beeping every 15 seconds. If I hit the silent button, I was able to get 2 whole minutes of sleep. I did that for an hour and a half while they tried to find someone who could help with it. Finally the nurse came in and just turned it off. Well, that made me very nervous. I got up and went to the nurses station and asked his nurse if she could call the on-call surgeon in Dr. Rosen's group just to see what they said about it since he is the one who is doing all of the wound vac stuff (she had been calling Dr. Rutland's group). She came back a few minutes later and told me she talked to Dr. Rosen and he said it was OK to turn it off. I slept pretty good until 4:30 am. I was only up with Tom two times and they weren't very long. It was enough sleep for me. I'll spend tonight with him and then it's back home. I can hang around a little while in the morning, go to the Y for my Saturday classes and then get my nails done! I'm hoping I can go for a bike ride on Sunday afternoon.
Tom said they told him he would have physical therapy every day - I'm not sure if that includes the weekend. I'll try to find out when I go back tonight.
Until then, thanks for keeping up with us. Keep praying for rapid healing!
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