Sunday, February 1, 2009

Saturday, January 31

<-- Sou's Chicken Wings

As scheduled, Sou had his dressing change with the surgeons at 7am. This time, seemed like it went better than the last. Sou was moaning less. The pain seemed more tolerable compared to the first couple of dressing changes. He usually wants me by his side during the dressing changes so after it was done, I was able to go back to sleep.

At 9am, I was woken up by the group of docs that stopped by. Like usual, the leader, the 3rd-year resident, and Jenny were there. This time, they had a "new" newbie. It was this young, asian dude with glasses. And like the previous newbie, he stood there, didn't say a word, and just observed. The leader did most of the talking. He said Sou was on day 17 of 21 for his chemotherapy. 

"At around day 23 or 24, we will check your marrow again to see if there's any leukemia cells," said Dr. Shustov. He also mentioned removing Sou's foley catheter and central line today. Today was going to be a busy day. Not only doing what Dr. Shustov said to do, but Sou was supposed to walk around the floor with physical therapy and take a shower. That didn't give us a lot of time because of how drugged the dressing changes left him. But to my surprise, Sou wasn't as sleepy. He didn't go back to bed after the docs had left. He just watched Ninja Turtles on the Cartoon Network. After a while, the nurse came in to remove Sou's catheter. It was more painful coming out than when they put it in. He was okay except for the lingering memories. He still complained about it a couple hours after.

Sou took his nap around lunchtime. The nurse woke him up around 1pm and said he should start walking around. There was significant swelling in Sou's legs. She brought Sou some "anti-embolism" stockings to help reduce the swelling.  Shortly after, Jaime stopped by to remove Sou's central line. It's kinda like his PICC line, but in his neck. They were saying that because they weren't using the central line, they should removed it due to the risk of infection. She cut the stitches that held the line in place. After she had the dressing taken off and the stitches cut, she quickly pulled out the catheter that led to Sou's heart. It was the size of a 6-8 inch long spaghetti noodle. After applying pressure with some gauze, she taped the gauze to his neck. The next couple of hours consisted of more textbook reading and watching the movies that Mark burnt me. 

Around 6pm, Sou took a shower and brushed his teeth. At the same time, I ordered chicken wings from Wing Zone. I picked up their brochure in the lobby area last week. Sou said he wanted plain wings so I ordered that for him. My mom was supposed to swing by and bring cheeseburgers from McDonald's after work. She said she was going to this casino afterwards but was making the time to bring food. It was out of her way and there would be traffic so, I called her to tell her that we already ordered food. She insisted on bringing the cheeseburgers anyways. After his shower, the nurse also changed his dressing around the PICC line. The smell from the alcohol pads really bothered him. He had the blanket over his nose the entire time. One of the nurses told me that chemo can heighten your senses. A couple weeks ago Sou was having issues with the smell of his urine and had to use a face mask every time he used the bathroom. They decided that because the dressing from the abscess would get wet in the shower, they would also do that dressing change right after. Sou got his doses of fentanyl and his wound packed. The nurse made comments on how well his wound was healing. Sou said each dressing change was becoming more and more painless. After that, Sou didn't feel like eating yet and took another nap. I watched another movie from Mark.

Around 10pm, they gave Sou his chemo through IV. While his PICC line was getting flushed, Sou covered his nose with a blanket again. It was getting late and I figured that this would be a good time to take a shower. I prefer to take my showers when no one is in the family room. When there's a crowd in there, usually someone needs to use the bathroom while i'm taking the shower. I can hear them try to open the locked door and walk away. So, they end up waiting until i'm done. For some reason, they all think that bathroom is the only one in the hospital. There's a toilet down the hall and another one on the floor below us right by the stairs. But they always prefer to wait til i'm finished. So in the end, I feel rushed. Sou finally was hungry. He asked the nurse if she could microwave a cheeseburger for him. 

"I would rather have you not eat those because of how long it's been sitting," she told him. She also meant the same for the chicken wings. I know this disappointed Sou. But she was right. If a cheeseburger had been sitting at home for a couple hours, we would usually eat it. She, in turn, offered some frozen lasagna that she could microwave. It was a veggie lasagna. I know Sou would never eat that in the real world, but that was his only choice for dinner. 

1 comment:

  1. ooo chicken wings. Well, we could have got that today since it is Superbowl Sunday, but we only got pizza and cheese bread from Little Ceasar's. But some chicken wings sound real good right now.

    ReplyDelete