I stopped to see the kids at my inlaws before they went to school and headed to Ann Arbor. I needed to personally tell the kids that daddy was doing okay.
At 8:30 I was in Brad's room, but he wasn't. The nurses station told me he was off getting wired shut. That shouldn't take too long right? Ha, we are talking about Dr time here. I had over an hour to kill before he would return. As I was straightening up so I could sit I found his white head wrap on the floor, blood soaked. That surely didn't make me feel good about how the night went.
When Brad was wheeled in he had a mixture of relief and pain in his eyes. I know he was glad to see me but the wiring/banding shut was brutal. He told me he was in so much pain and that the night was horrible. His nurse hadn't done a good job of keeping on top of his pain and was only giving him some of the pain killers if he asked for them and then was slow about it. I knew I should have stayed, I felt and still feel just horrible about leaving. Not to mention I saw his whole face that day. That image enough would make you feel just horrible for the other person. Here is day two look, it is actually an improvement.
At some point on Friday I asked the Drs if Brad could have a morphine pump. Now this is day ONE, keep that in mind. They told us no, that it was a step backwards. Backwards!? We haven't even had enough time to take a step forward yet! They want to possibly send him home TOMORROW so they want to start trying to get him off narcotic pain killers. Wow, they really want to boot him out! Just ridiculous. I told them they need not worry about when he is going home but managing his pain since that is one of the requirements for going home. They at least upped his pain meds significantly and added some others. He now has 3 pain killers he can have and morphine as requested (within 2 hour time frames I think it was).
I however had to keep his meds schedule down and call the nurse at every dosage. The IB Profin was a scheduled dosage so the nurse would come in with that on time but the other pain killers, well those we had to ask for. I kept telling the nurse as soon as his 4 hours was up to please just bring his next dose. Sometimes she would sometimes she wouldn't, it was very frustrating. I knew I couldn't leave the hospital. Brad was not with it enough to keep a drug schedule in mind and watch the clock. I should have packed more then a days worth of clothes.
Besides the drugs Brad could have ice packs on his face. They were supposed to be used 20 mins on 20 mins off, but a lot of the time we'd fall asleep and they would stay on longer. Brad never wanted to take them off anyways. On Saturday the Dr told us he should have stopped the ice and switched to moist heat. Guess we were just supposed to know this, you know we all went to med school! You would think a nurse would have had to get someone moist heat at some time. Apparently not our nurse. And yes, we were lucky enough to have her every day for most of the day. Her answer to moist heat? Oh a warm wash cloth stuffed inside a bio-hazard bag...nice. It did not stay warm long at all! Luckily, our night time nurse did fix that problem and brought Brad some of those break and heat bags to wrap in a damp towel, much better.
His lips were a big issue as well. I mean just look at them of course they hurt! There was a white cream we had to put on for the first 2 days. Then I brought him chap stick, which wasn't really cutting it. Those Angelina lips were so swollen and cracked in the corners. They would just bleed. Shutting his mouth was not yet an option so he would drool on them all day long adding to the problem. The lip pain also hindered eating.
I learned how to feed Brad. He was starving but in so much pain he didn't want to eat. Swallowing was painful and eating with a tube and a syringe isn't really ideal now is it? Feeding him is one of the things I had been the most concerned with.
The dietitian came in and helped put my mind at ease. She told me his needed calorie, protein, and fluid intake numbers. Those were a bit overwhelming. She also gave me a handout with recipes and other hints to boost calories and protein.
Once the nurse made sure Brad could swallow we attempted "eating." It went well. I learned how thin the liquid had to be to fit in the syringe with out clogging. We found the best system was for me to fill the syringe then have Brad insert the tube to the back of his teeth down his cheek. Then I would push the food in for him. If he wasn't too weak he'd push it in sometimes too.
On Saturday the Drs said they wanted to send him home that night. They decided to take away the stronger pain killers and morphine and just give him Oxycodone and IB Profin, the drugs he would have when we got home. Then they would stop by later and see what his pain level was like. They assured us they were not trying to push us out. Even though we would like a night without nurses coming to wake him up taking vitals every few hours we decided to tell the Drs we wanted to stay until Sunday. They said okay so we settled in for another long night.
During these nights I slept in a chair that stretched out flat, not too comfy but I know I wasn't in as much pain as Brad so I was fine. I didn't get too much sleep. Brad slept a lot during the day and the nights but was in so much pain the naps weren't too long. I swear every person in the hospital had their "outside voice" turned on. You'd think you were at the park not in a building full of SICK people! I had to keep asking staff who came in the room either for Brad or his room mate to please be quiet. Oh and if you recall how Brad's feet were hanging off the bed, yep nearly every person that came into the room ran into his feet. Really? Bump the person who is in massive pain to move, nice. We had to push his bed back as far as we could to try to keep him out of these people's walk way. And can anyone shut a door when they leave or enter a room, nope!
Then it was Sunday morning time to head home...
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