Sunday, January 25

<--- Sou's IV meds

Post-Surgery 

At 4am, one of the surgeons woke me up. He probably told me his name, but I couldn't remember. The surgery was complete. It turns out that his abscess was rather "large". From what I remember, the surgeon said this, "He was sicker than others thought with his blood pressure being so low. Usually when people have operations like this, they tend to become more sick. And that's what he did. He's going to be moved upstairs to the ICU. We're also gonna let his breathing tube stay in for a couple days." 

When I heard this, all I needed to do was clarify if he was alright. He said he was okay. It felt like he wasn't telling me everything, like something crazy happened in the operating room. When Sou left for surgery, his blood pressure was 87/32. After he left the room, I began to pack up all our things. I didn't realize how much stuff we had. All the drawers and my bags of stuff I needed to spend the night added up. When I was done, I grabbed half the stuff and headed out to the front desk. They already assigned him his room but he wasn't upstairs yet. When I arrived on the 8th floor, the charge nurse asked me to wait in the family room until they got Sou settled in. I called my mom, Bill (Sou's friend), Irelynn, and Elsie. I figured that they could spread the word. 

About 20 minutes later, the nurse said that they would need to put in a central line. Because this would take a while, she said that I could see him before they got started. He was heavily sedated and he had a breathing tube down his throat. Because of his blood pressure and the pain from the abscess, they had to keep him on several different IV medications all at once. The doctor said that because of all the medications, he may not be able to breath on his own. It felt like it took them an hour to place the central line. Later a series of repeat chest x-rays were done. After he was settled in, the nurse said he would be getting a couple units of blood. I unfolded the chair and tried to get some rest. An hour and a half later, I woke up to the sounds of a nurse getting ready to do oral care. She attached a sponged tip to a suction tube and began to clean his mouth. His breathing tube needed to be pushed in about an inch more. When she started to mess with his tube, he immediately bit down. 

"No Sou! Let go!" she said. She turned to me and asked, "Can you tell him to stop?"

"Sou, she needs to put your tube in s'more," I said. 

"Jheri said to stop Sou. NO," she said as she struggled. Then Sou relaxed as she pushed the tube a little farther down his throat. I could see him begin to gag. I stood by him a few minutes afterwards. I was still tired from the lack of sleep. I laid back in my chair and I heard someone say my name. I looked up and saw Mark and Stephanie in the doorway. I was surprised that they found the room. They hung out for a little bit. One of the docs came in to see Sou. He asked if he had any exposure to wild animals, anyone with TB, or if he smoked or did any drugs. I said no to all of the above. I mentioned that he had a negative PPD in the hospital at Anchorage. He told us that it looked like he had pneumonia. I remember one of the docs saying that it was a possibility during chemo. It got close to lunchtime so we headed downstairs. We probably sat in the cafeteria for almost 2 hours just chatting. We talked about the old times and when we used to live in Hawaii. Time flew for a little bit. 

When we got back from lunch, they wanted to do another chest x-ray. We stepped out of the room and I began trying to get a hold of my mom. She wasn't answering her phone. I called Toys-R-Us and they kept transferring me and putting me on hold. Sou was still very sedated. While holding his hand, he stuck out one finger and began tracing letters on his blanket. I asked if he could write and he nodded. I scrambled for a piece of paper. Stephanie handed me a notepad which I failed to return before they left. I placed the pen in Sou's right hand and gave him the notepad. He scribbled something down. I had to look close at it. He wrote "Butt dont hurt". 

"OOOh that's good, yea they got you on all sorts of meds so your butt don't hurt. And they said they took out a lot too. They said it was huge," I told him. Sometime during the day I remember the doctor telling me that they drained two cups of pus from Sou's abscess. I pictured the two measuring cups I have at home. 

Later on Mike and Tim, PA's I work with, showed up. They were in town for some conference thingy. Finally, people I know. There's been so many new and different faces in the hospital. I was sick of trying to remember the nurse's name because everyday a different nurse came in. It wasn't long til my mom showed up. She walked in and was like, "Oh hey, hi." I guess she recognized them from the time when we all went to Jaxx and Koots. Then she greeted Mark and Stephanie. We all chit chat for a while, mainly about Sou. Mike was eyeing Sou's "cocktail" of IV meds. Yea, Sou had 10 different things being pumped into his veins. I told them that they squeezed 2 cups of pus from Sou's abscess. 

"That's like 8 ounces," said Mike. "That's like a can of soda." So every time I saw a can of soda after that, I thought of Sou's abscess. I asked about First Care and how things were back at work. They said they were fine but was starting to notice the depletion of supplies here and there. Tim said we were out of some meds a couple times. It made me miss work. The nurse came in and started doing some stuff. We all got a chance to ask her a few questions. Mom got a call from John saying he made dinner for me. She ran home to pick it up. Mark and Stephanie left after waiting hours for my mom to show up. The PA's left too. After an hour, my Mom came back with Kaliya, John, and dinner. John made fried chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. A bunch of nurses came in and said they were about to change Sou's dressing. I decided to show mom and Kaliya the family room while they did that. They hung around for a little bit then left. Mom told me to get some sleep. I forgot that I only had an hour and a half of sleep. So I did just that.