Tuesday, February 3

<-- The Sunrise

At 15 minutes before 8am, the surgeons came for Sou's dressing change. Sou already had his fentanyl lollipop in his mouth. They wanted to try this in combination with the oxycodone for his pain. He made the regular moans but in the end he said it was alright. After the procedure, the nurse disposed of the lollipop and gave Sou his morning medications along with his chemo pills. Before Sou took his nap, he asked if I could go to my mom's place to make some spaghetti. He was craving non-hospital food and missed my cooking. I called up my mom and told her to pick me up. I figured I could also make Kaliya some cupcakes too. She's been begging me to make her cupcakes. 

When 10am came around, the new md fellow came by. He replaced the previous fellow, Dr. Khera. He wanted to talk to Sou about taking some bone marrow. This would be the actual test to determine if we could go home soon or not. They were going to check if Sou had any remaining leukemia cells in the bone marrow. If so, he would need to go through an additional week of chemotherapy. The doctor agreed with Sou to do the bone marrow at 8am tomorrow morning just after the dressing change. All Sou was concerned about was the pain. He clearly remembers the events of the last bone marrow he did. The doc said that he wasn't taking a bone biopsy, just aspirating the marrow. He also said he would give Sou more pain meds than the doctor in Anchorage. About five minutes after he left the room, he returned with the group of docs. The leader thought Sou was ready to be released from the hospital and said it was alright for him to be released tomorrow. FINALLY. YAAAAY!!! They would make sure I had all the necessary supplies to perform the dressing changes. We asked about when we could go back to Alaska and he said it would depend on the results of the marrow and what the surgeons thought regarding his wound. He mentioned that they could probably remove the rubber drains from the wound in about a week. 

After the docs left, my mom picked me up to make spaghetti for Sou. We stopped at Safeway for the ingredients and went to her place. While she made the spaghetti I made cupcakes for Kaliya. I baked french vanilla cupcakes with whipped cream frosting. I packed up some of the spaghetti for Sou and waited for Kaliya to come home from school. When I heard her coming in the door, I hid in the shower. 

"AAAAHH CUPCAKES!!!" I heard her yell. "Aww, I wish Jheri could be here," she added.

"She was here, but she left already," my mom told her. 

"She was??? Haaww," she whined. My mom told her to wash her hands before she could have a cupcake. She came into the bathroom. I waited til I heard her shut off the water.

"BOOOOO!!!!!!" I shouted as I threw the shower curtain open. 

"AAAH" she screamed. "JHERI!!" I gave her a big hug and told her that I needed to go back to the hospital. She asked if she could come with my mom to drop me. Before we left the apartment, Kaliya scarfed down a cupcake leaving frosting all over her face. 

When we arrived at the hospital, I layed out the tupper ware with Sou's spaghetti. I also brought a loaf of french bread for him. He prefers soft french bread over garlic bread. He ate everything like he was Cookie Monster. When he was just about done, he said, "Oooh my stomach hurt." He ran into the bathroom. When he came out, he washed his hands and finished his meal with a cupcake. His appetite was definitely coming back. 

His nurse came in and gave him his pain medication so he could get a dressing change. Before leaving the room, the nurse said, "Okay, you're comfortable with the dressing changes?." I told her I was. 

"Okay, so call me if you want me to be here when you do it. Or call me if you have any questions," she said. 

"Sure, thanks, " I said. While waiting for the medication to take effect, Sou took a shower. As he did this, I got all the supplies ready. Sou hopped onto the bed and got comfortable. I turned on the super bright lights so I could see. I threw on some gloves and pulled out the dressing. I noticed less gauze came out. I peeked inside the cavity and saw that the wound was getting shallower and more narrow. I didn't see any gauze left over so I pulled out the gauze from the other side. I threw the bloody gauze into the biohazard bin and pulled on a new pair of gloves. I wet the gauze roll with normal saline and grabbed a sterile cotton tipped applicator (large q-tip). I held the gauze in one hand and the applicator in the other. As I pushed the gauze into the back of Sou's wound, I unraveled the gauze roll little by little until the wound was completely packed with gauze. I tossed the applicator into the nearby trash and reached for the scissors. I cut the piece of gauze and repeated the process in the second wound. This one was really shallow and healed a lot. You could probably fit one of those bouncy balls in there. The kind you get from those vending machines for a quarter at the front of the stores. In no time, it was all over. I put an abdominal pad over the wound and called it good. Like usual, Sou was asleep again within 5 minutes. 

Later on, I ordered chicken wings and we watched two movies. It was 2am and I was sleepy. Sou stayed up all night in anticipation of tomorrow's bone marrow results. 

SPAGHETTI!!!
CupCakes for Kaliya


Kaliya eating a cupcake