Escape from the hospital

I busted out of the hospital about 7:30 last night which is a good thing for me and the hospital staff.  I must say that my general impression of the nurse care during the four days dealing with this nasty infection was no where near as favorable as it has been with my cancer care nurses.  I do not know if these folks are just plain less competent or the cancer care nurse are a significant cut above the norm.  But, I promised to report my experiences as I see them throughout this cancer ordeal; the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Do not get me wrong, though.  I DID have some nurses who were terrific but many more who I judge as barely at or below being totally competent.  My judgement measure is simple - would I trust my life in their hands?  Too many made me want to stealth into my clothes and walk out like a visitor returning home.

An example; I saw the tube that comes from antibiotic and hydration drip bags and feeds into my chest catheter tube dropped by two different nurse and hit the floor!  Holy crap!  One nurse wiped the tip off with alcohol as I watched in horror, too weak to stop her in time, as she plugged that thing back into ME. The other at least had enough sense to disconnect every tube in the system and hook up new tubing.  Of course, he soured the show of brains by just tossing the disconnected tubing over on the counter next to the sink in my room never to return and put that contaminated death weapon into the proper disposal container.  You stick a contaminated tube into a patient and you are as guilt of attempted murder as pulling a trigger pointed at their heart.  No knowledgeable person would disagree with that. Period.

And, oh good grief, the hospital chow was absolutely the worst tasting crud I have ever had to choke down.  I cannot think of a single day in two tours in Vietnam or any DXpedition I have ever been on where I ate more disgusting chow.  And I am including the days I ate MRE's out of a bag!  No surprise, I lost five valuable pounds during this unpleasant hospital stay.

Yes, indeed, I am glad to out of that place.  Because of my uneasiness and the constant laughing and chatter coming from the Nurses Station just outside my door, I rarely slept for more than 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Last night I slept for 12 hours straight once getting home to a place that felt safe without my life in danger and that provided quiet surroundings. 

So, here is where we are:

• Six days of IV fed antibiotics here at home
• A new infection watch is on to make sure the treatment for the first infection has not created a new problem in my digestive system (does it ever end?)
• Several days of extra special care of the feed tube entry point into my abdomen
• Chemo Cycle Two canceled this week and moved to next Thursday to let me build back up some reserves I'll need to get through that session
• Tomorrow I start weekly one hour meetings with a special social worker like professional at my Cancer center so that somebody is watching to see if my mental health is where it needs to be to make it down this long journey. I'd be lying if I did not admit that yesterday was the first day I actually questioned that...
• Thirteen doctors have been involved in my treatment so far...is there a Guinness Book of Records target I should go for?!

Full head of hair still

I do not know who has how much money bet on which day my hair will fall out.  But, if you hold a ticket for today (Sunday) or any day previous to today, you underestimated the tenacity of my hair follicles!   I am well into the period when the hair dump was supposed to occur but it’s a total non-show so far.  Hold your ticket!  Chemo Cycle Two, a more powerful version of Cycle One, starts this coming Thursday.  If the chemo does not get the hair, maybe I’ll pull it out myself during this round of fun!

Sunday – big improvement!

Sunday reveals more improvement. The docs are visibly happy about the results of the treatment.  One reports that the Lab has just reported that they have nailed down the specific bacteria causing all this trouble for me.  We are able to eliminate one of the antibiotic drips.  There is talk that I might get out of here tomorrow even though I will have to continue the IV drip at home.  That is fine with me.  I am way past hospital-phobia and need to get the heck out of here.  My cranky level is climbing and I am sure I have moved over into the nurses’ SOB category.

Saturday – more of Friday

Saturday is a continuation of Friday.  I do notice that the swelling and redness around the G tube seems better.  Visits from my two attending doctors confirm the improvement and we all feel better about the situation.  At least we are on the right track…even if we do not yet know what nasty bugs are behind all this.

Infection still winning

Friday evening, late night and early Saturday morning hours crawled at a snail’s pace.  There is a seemingly non-stop flow of hospital med people coming in checking for any signs of improvement in my pain level while checking the flow of my vital antibiotic IV drip. They have been constantly lifting my no-modesty “gown” to monitor the bullet hole ugly appearance of the G tube’s much infected entry point through my abdomen to my stomach.  It is impossible for the doctors to know exactly what bacteria is attacking me because it can take up to 48 hours for the Lab to grow a culture from a sample of the inflection discharge.  Because of that, they are feeding me two very strong antibiotics to cover all the bases.  To keep these meds flowing, I am getting a constant drip of saline solution with Potassium Chloride that serves to keep me hydrated at the same time.  

I am so exhausted from all the hours of sleep lost over the past two weeks because of this pain.  Things are not much different here except that the hospital bed with all of its adjustments allows me to fine tune my position to one that brings the least amount of pain.  With that comfort comes waves of sleep and no sleep that makes the hours roll past in a blur of non-memorable rounds of questioning from hospital staff, trying to eat, dragging my IV pole of meds into the bathroom, etc.