April 5, 2013

• Barnes Raising Health

  Continued from previous post: Thought I would jot down a few more things before I blonk everything out.

  Candace took off around 7 am Monday morning, and then we had a parade of hospital staff come in. The parade included a couple of therapists. The OT (occupational therapist) really cracked me up. She asked Tom what seemed like a hundred inane questions. And it wasn’t really the questions that were off-putting- it was her voice. Like nails on a chalkboard. And she talked to him like he was three years old, cutesy-bouncy.  ”What is the date”, “What year is it?” “Who is the President?” “What time is it?”. Tom had to think about that one for a second- he is not a clock watcher, and time in a hospital either moves really, really fast or really, really slow. He guessed, “eight o’clock”?”  The OT pounced on that. “Noooooo…. it is almost 9!” There were more questions, “do you live in a house?”, “can you take your socks off and put them back on?”, “do you use a walker?”. There were more of that ilk, then came the fun and games. “Okay- now we are going to do a grooming activity!” Tom patiently, quietly, answered all her questions until she ran out of them, and we were all relieved to hear that she wouldn’t need to come back because Tom was doing okay. I talked to Candace on the phone later on that day and related the OT conversation. Candace made me feel a lot better about it- she works at a different hospital in St. Louis, in the Intensive Care Unit. OT’s are there, as well, and as Candace explained, they have to talk to every single patient that comes in and run through the same set of questions each time, as part of the new patient processing. So if the OT sounded robotic and rushed, it was due to having to ask the same questions over and over and over and over again, every day.

  To back-track- and because I don’t remember what happened when, Tom was swooped in and out of the room for different things over Sunday and Monday. The CT scan had to wait until Tom’s kidney was rehydrated enough to be able to cope with the contrast dye. I think that they decided against that, and ran a CT which did not require dye. 

  I left the hospital about about 11 am on Monday to go home, take care of some things at the house, then over to Bunker Hill to turn in copy, process pictures and stories and get the newspaper I work on at least laid out. I work with really, really great people, and I can’t say enough good about them. Because of my situation, they are all taking on extra duties when I need to be away. I was able to get things lined out by five, then headed on over to Candace and Chads. She, Verity and I went to the hospital and saw how Tom was doing. He still was hooked up to all kinds of things, and was not feeling well still. Wendy had been with him in the afternoon, and got to talk to the radiologist, the oncologist and the fellow whose specialty is placing stents, a small mesh tube.  The problem, as determined by the scans was that a lymph gland, affected by cancer, had pushed against the small intestine bowel wall, and had pushed it to a position where it was essentially closed shut. Their plan was to insert the stent into the bowel. The second choice was radiation- I think to try to shrink the offending lymph node, but there were some complications with that idea, so they were not keen about pursuing that. That’s what we knew by Monday night, and the procedure was to take place on Tuesday.

  I went over to the newspaper office very early on Tuesday to get as much done as I could by 8 am. Then I took off for the hospital. I mentioned in a previous post that the Center for Advanced Medicine was a ghost town on Sunday. It was certainly the opposite on Tuesday at 10 am. The street in front of the building was crammed with cars for two blocks; the valet parking lanes were filled and overflowing. A traffic cop was on hand to direct people around the worst of it. Parking was completely different as well. Each level was crammed with cars; slowly, slowly, I edged up each level until we were on the roof- and around and around and around I went there, until I finally saw a space- there were only about four left on the roof. Whew!

  I wasn’t there long until they came to take Tom away to get the stent procedure done. That was about 11 am. I stayed in his room, and loved the quiet time. I had brought a jacket with me that I needed to replace the zipper on, so I worked on getting the zipper out with a seam ripper- sitting in the recliner by the window, getting the benefit of good light and warm sunshine. At about 1 pm, I wondered how things were going- I went to the nurses station and asked, but they didn’t know. It wasn’t long after that, that a really nice nurse with a sunbeam smile came in and told me that everything was going well. I kind of dozed off, then I heard an orderly moving things around on the other side of Tom’s hospital room. On Monday, they said that they were going to be moving another patient in with Tom. We were kind of disappointed, because it is really nice to have a room to yourself, but they have to make best use of their facility. The roommate didn’t materialize Monday night, or Tuesday morning. When I heard the furniture being re-arranged over there, (I had the dividing curtain pulled most of the way over), I thought that he had finally arrived. That went on for a little while longer, then I got up to see who the roommate was. The orderly had left a patient on a gurney in the hallway. I looked, then I LOOKED- and it was Tom!  I guess maybe the orderly thought I was a patient and he would have to get the other side ready. We ended up having the room to ourselves the whole time. That was nice!

  Things started going uphill after the procedure. While Tom was knocked out, they removed the NG tube, which was a big relief for him. I went home about 6:30, then Candace came to visit after I left. 

  I was determined to get there bright and early Wednesday. After making a couple of stops (thank you Walmart for being open 24 hours), I got there about 6:30 am. Tom got to start clear liquids. The hospital food situation was a lot different from when I had our babies. Instead of circling items to order, and then being delivered at a set time, you could pick up the phone and order from the list of foods at anytime until 8 pm. Tom was able to eat some, but not much. But he was headed in the right direction! I decided to spend the night on Wednesday. We watched some TV together before calling it a day. 

  Thursday. I tried to order Tom some breakfast, but the lines were busy for 1 1/2 hours. Kind of frustrating- but it was one of those situations that turned out the way it was supposed to. Dr. Ding (not pronounced ‘ding’)- the doctor who would pop in on a regular basis, to give us an update on what was going on, said that Tom could go on a ‘full liquid’ diet. So, of course, when Tom picked up the phone to order some of that, he got in on the first try. 

  We had some visitors on Thursday- Matt Harvey stopped in and saw us; also Bill and Kathy Cooper. It was really nice to visit with them!

  We got the green light to go home in the early afternoon. Also Grace and Abby were on their way here. I was really excited that they were coming- that would be so nice to have other people there when we left- they could help with our stuff….AND the driving! 

  I like how the hospital let me take Tom out in a wheelchair, instead of waiting for an orderly. We just packed up, got Tom in a chair, then I met Grace and Abby in the parking garage. Grace drove our van with Tom, and I rode with Abby in her car. After stopping at CVS to turn in our prescription orders, we went HOME! 

  It’s been great to have Abby and Grace here- it’s like a home health service- they have cooked, shopped and also took Tom’s car into the shop to check out a electrical issue. Tom and I have been totally basking in being at home. 

  We are scheduled to go to the oncologist next Tuesday. I hope that things will be pretty ordinary and get back into a routine. Tom had to cancel his speaking engagement this weekend; I don’t know about next weekend- he has a couple places he is supposed to go, but that will just depend on how he is feeling. He has been eating a lot more today; that is encouraging.

  • 1:48 pm
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