Thursday, January 15

I had spent the night at my mom's place. I awoke to the sound of the cat "Ella" running across the living room carpet. That cat is crazy. Cute, but crazy. Today's plan was to take a shower and bring Sou his favorite barbeque chicken from L&L. He hasn't been eating much because he said that all of the hospital food had no taste. I disagree. With the help of the salt and pepper packets they set on the tray with the food, i think it tastes pretty acceptable. So when I mentioned that I had seen an L&L down the street and he said, "MMMMMMMM!!!" I figured that he could use the bbq chicken. I called him to confirm his desire for chicken. To my surprise, he declined. He decided to stick to his hospital diet. Unlike the diet Providence had him on, the nurse here said that as long as all foods are throughly cooked and all fresh fruits and vegetables are cleaned well, it would be fine.

When we arrived at his room, they had taken Sou somewhere. Since he wasn't there, we went down to the "Cafe Plaza" to get lunch. We took the elevators down to the 2nd floor. Then we (my mom, her bf and I) followed a series of signs through a maze of hallways. Their food was very ethnically diverse. I played it safe and had a chicken ranch salad. By the time we got back to Sou's room, he was already lying in his bed with the nurse at bedside checking his PICC line. Between the time I had left last night and the time I returned, they gave him 3 bags of plasma, 1 bag of blood, 1 bag of potassium, drew more blood, inserted a PICC line, did a heart scan, did a urine culture, and gave him non-skid socks. He looked up at me and said, "Where'd you go??" I could tell he was worn out. Every time he would fall asleep, someone would come in to either take his vitals, take fluids, or give fluids. My mom, her bf and I spent the next hour and a half keeping Sou company. We then left to pick up my sister so she could visit Sou as well. Kaliya really, really wanted to visit Sou. When she spoke to Sou over the phone after finding out about his condition, she sounded as if she was about to cry. Her and Sou got along really well. He knew her for five years now (ever since she was 4). 

When we came back to the hospital, we made Kaliya wait outside the room to make him think that she didn't come. Me and my mom went inside and saw Sou lying there looking very exhausted and again receiving a unit of blood. Every time we asked him something he would just say, "uhm". Okay, what does "uhm" mean? Him and the noise "uhm" go waaaay back. Well, after a few minutes of stepping inside the room, we kinda forgot that she was still outside waiting for our cue. I went outside and she was still rubbing hand sanitizer all over her hands. 

"Go inside." I told her. When she stepped into the room, Sou snapped out of his phase and smiled. 

"Hi Kaliya."

"Hi Sou." she smiled back. She took a few steps towards him while eyeing his arm which had the PICC line in it. 

"See Kaliya, Sou's really sick," my mom told her. She didn't say anything and just looked at Sou with a softened expression. Then Sou pointed at a tiny, black teddy bear the cancer center at Providence had given him. 

"Kaliya, look. That's for you." he told her. I grabbed the bear and handed it to her. 

"What are you gonna name it?"

"Beary," she said. It told her that "Beary" is too easy. She named her cat Ella from "Ella Enchanted". She once had two hermit crabs who she named "Hailey" and "Bailey". Hailey was originally named "Spongebob Square Pants Jill Sullivan" after her. Her name is Kaliya Jill Sullivan.

A few minutes after Kaliya and my mom left, Sou began to fall asleep. I decided to let him get some rest and headed out to the lounge to get some of these blogs done. After an hour of blogging I went to check on Sou. He was lying in his bed awake and tired. The nurse had been in there to check on his vitals again. He said his chemo was going to start at 10p.m. I decided to wait for that. The nurse came in and did an EKG for a baseline before they started treatment. Soon as she rolled in the EKG cart, Sou began eyeing the cart. 

"It won't hurt," I said. The nurse laughed. Afterwards, she returned with another nurse who was carrying an IV bag and some other packaging. His nurse walked over to Sou and spelled out his first and last name to verify with the other nurse. Then she handed her the medications and left. His nurse put on this gown and explained that it was his chemo and it was to reduce exposure to the toxic drugs. She opened the packaging and dumps several pills into a cup. She handed it to Sou and told him that it was his All-trans and a Zofran. He took the cup full of meds and a full cup of water. Then she set up his IV bag of the Arsenic Trioxide. Sou asked her, "Am I gonna be sick?"

"Not necessarily. It varies from person to person, but with this medication, it doesn't happen a lot. If you do start feeling nauseated, let me know and I can give you something for that," she explained. I planned on finishing up this blog out in the lounge. Before I left the room again I made sure he had ice and water and was comfortable. I told him to call me on the cell if he needed me and to call the nurse if he needed the nurse. I turned off the light and shut the door to help his chances of getting some rest. So I plan on keeping daily entries on his status and daily experiences. Please check back often for the latest=)