What a longggggg strange trip it's been! We finally thought we had Lorne's situation worked out and we thought he'd start feeling better immediately, but NO. It was wishful thinking as Thursday night was miserable. I mean MISERABLE! He was in severe pain with nausea all night long. There is no sleeping for the patient or the caregiver under that stress. It took a while but after several pow wows with all the doctors, we figured it out. He was having a reaction to the antibiotic Flagyl. Apparently this antibiotic is particularly nasty on the gut and so he needed an anti-nausea medication so they gave him something called Ranisen. Ranisen did not work for Lorne. Once they figured that out and switched him to Zofran to manage the nausea, which is what we use at home during chemo, he was much much better, or muy buena, as they say around here. But then he got sick AGAIN. And when I say sick I mean really really sick. So then Lorne, in a moment of utter brilliance, came up with the idea to slow down the drip rate on the Flagyl, since that was the underlying problem, and pre-dose him with the Zofran 10-15 minutes before beginning the Flagyl drip, so the anti-nausea meds are "on board" prior to the infusion of anti-biotics. That combination was the answer. We started that program on Friday, exactly one week after the surgery! By late Friday afternoon he had color in his face, he could sit up in his bed, and we could understand what he was saying. It was like night and day. He hadn't been seen around the hospital in a week because he was bed ridden and all the doctors and nurses would come to our room to see him. And they came ALOT. I mean all the time. I would try to take a shower in the mornings and it was just impossible because there was never a break long enough with the constant flow of people coming into our room. I'm not complaining because their pro-active approach is very reassuring. But it was frustrating to have people in and out of your room 20 - 30 times by 10 am. Not to mention all night long, constantly, in and out, in and out. We couldn't lock our door because we'd just have to get up every 5 - 10 minutes. But he needed that level of care so I am as thankful as I was frustrated. They have an interesting communication system here where you push your call button and a speaker built into to the ceiling lights up and someone says "yes?" And then speak to the ceiling. It felt a little over-lordish sometimes. Looking up at the ceiling and stating your desired outcome. It's pretty funny, but it was quite efficient! We would usually have a nurse in our room within 2 -5 minutes of pressing the button! If only all my desired outcomes could be addressed that quickly! So after we figured out what needed to happen, it was all uphill from there! Lorne had a chat with the main nurse, Eddie, who is absolutely awesome, and Eddie got all the other nurses dialed in on the plan, and there were no problems since then. Lorne even went to dinner last night in the dining hall and when he walked through the doors everyone started clapping!! Some of the ladies were even crying! It was awesome. He hadn't showered
3 Comments
Alicia
12/7/2014 04:27:41 am
I am so glad to hear that Lorne is doing much better and is moving around. It must have been very emotional to have everyone clapping at dinner! Do you go home to recover from surgery before the treatment starts up again?
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Cathy and Tim
12/7/2014 12:36:26 pm
We'll leave it to Lorne to figure out what the hell everyone was doing wrong! Gotta love Lorne!
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Thomas and Jeanne
12/10/2014 02:35:00 am
Are you home yet? We were going to see if you needed anything done at the house before the storm rolled in. Keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
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AuthorSean is Lorne's wife. She is the mother of one lovely daughter, Kayla, and an all around kick ass person. Archives
April 2015
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