Apparently not I, not Austin. I’m surprised with what we are getting by with at times, I’m beginning to think it’s over-rated. Overall at this time you’ll get two-thumbs up from both of us.
Yesterday morning we had our Infectious Disease appointment and he got another Pneumococcal vaccine. We came home with a few more papers and information sheets.
I’m typically not one to read the sheets intently at first, I don’t want to be influenced by what is in print.
Last night around 9 pm I thought his face looked a little fuller but overall he seemed fine. He is still an eating machine. He was tucked in and we didn’t hear a peep out of him. At 10:30 he was up and restless, his face still looked fuller but now he looked like he had a fat upper lip and he told me without prompting “I feel dizzy”. He also complained about his back and right side hurting. At that time I pulled out his information sheet on the vaccine and when the recommended protocol was a trip to the ER I did what I was supposed to do, we went to the ER. He at no time had any problems breathing, no coughing, nothing else that caused concern but the rash that had appeared when he was in the hospital, although it was faint, looked like it was coming back.
I do think I finally discovered what caused his allergic reaction in the hospital. At that time it was very difficult to tell, three vaccines required before the removal of the spleen, the blood transfusion he had prior and during surgery and the meds used during surgery all complicated identifying what created the allergic response. Now I do believe it was the vaccine. We are probably fortunate that he’s on steroids so that probably lessened the effects.
While in the ER I did notice his blood pressure was slightly elevated, which to me is a sign that yes there is pain. Heart rate is high but lately it is always running over a 100 so it’s difficult for me to use that as a measure. They did treat with Benadryl and gave him pain meds through an IV. Once again they took numerous tubes of blood. Through his electronic health chart it was interesting to note in a little over 12 hours how some of his numbers had changed. Earlier in the day the WBC was elevated, over 15, now it was a little over 10, just outside the normal range. Hemoglobin that was 9.8 in the morning was now 8.9 – what a difference just a few hours made and I’m not sure what made the difference. Could it all be related to the vaccine? I don’t know.
He drank almost a half of glass of the water with the contrast stuff in it for the CT Scan. I think he liked the nurse and he was trying to please her. I’m surprised we got that much into him. He was a pro at the CT scan and it didn’t take long at all. Thankfully his little ER room had a TV and he lucked out – the TV only had limited channels and the last channel in the list was the History Channel. I don’t know what we’d do without Pawn Stars to pass the time J.
The CT scan showed a blood clot in the splenic vein (according to the surgeons downtown nothing to worry about), constipation (probably a side effect from the Rituximab treatments), a small Hiatel Hernia (really – we’ll just add that to his list of health concerns) and scattered diverticulosis without diverticulitis in the colon. Around this time they forgot all about what brought us there in the first place.
There was a discussion at first to admit us, in which I noted that I would like us transferred downtown – which they didn’t think would be possible - I think that’s what prompted the phone call to the surgeon team downtown. Around 5:30 am we were discharged with instructions to pick-up MiraLax and Benaydrl from the pharmacy and follow-up with our primary care physician (which I don’t think I’ll do – we see enough physicians regularly – I think they’ll be able to cover this).
Today, if I poke him in the right side his demeanor changes, maybe it’s from the crap traffic jam. I did slip some MiraLax into his yogurt this morning, pushing grape Juicy Juice (always diluted with water).
I think I got at least two very tall (batman) glasses into him today. Now, all I need is for the crap fairy to visit hoping it’s not at night, doesn’t happen on treatment Thursday and he recognizes the signs to move quickly to the bathroom. Simple wishes, simple things, time will tell if it all works out and no matter what happens it will all work out.
Sometimes it feels like we can’t win for losing. I recently watched the Shawshank Redemption (for probably the 15th time) and a quote from Red sometimes resonates in my head ~ “Get busy living or get busy dying.” That’s all we need to do just stay busy living. No need to feel sorry for us we are just playing it out of Austin’s play book, the simple things keep us happy, normal keeps us happy and when we can’t have normal there is nothing we can do to change that, we can only roll with it. Austin has no worries, no fears about what tomorrow will bring, he is taking it one day at a time and the only thing that does matter is today.
So don’t feel sorry for us, in the words of Red, “Get busy living”.
I’m going to close with just a couple of samples of words/phrases I haven't heard Austin use before, he does crack me up at times, he told me the one about blushing last night.
A: Do you remember when I was a baby?
M: Yep, I remember when you were a cute little baby.
A: Stop, you're making me blush!
***
M: It is good that you drink a lot of juice.
A: Yep, I need to stay well hydrated.
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