Day 52 - Ice Maiden (March 29, 2009)
This morning, we found Bic in very good spirit. She has had a good nights sleep and was ready for a brand new day.
There is still a lot of medical things to contend with first thing in the morning like her 20 minute respiratory vest treatment, her Lovonox injection in her belly and organization of about half a dozen infusion meds and food. It makes the whole process of getting started very slow.
Bic had one of each color from her Trix cereal like last night and a lot of crushed ice (she had a full cup of ice)!
The doctor came in this morning and expressed her pleasure at how well Bic was doing. She confirmed that the endoscopy could probably be dispensed with tomorrow, but they would have to talk with GI first thing to get their buy in. Also we talked about the proposition of another brain surgery. She said that this was also looking unlikely since Bic appears to be in the clear since withdrawing the penicillin. The fevers are now been put down to the penicillin (drug fever). During the night, Bic complained that she woke with a hot flush and the nurses reported a high temperature of 100.2, which is relatively low for Bic.
She managed to go to the toilet again, which is a good accomplishment. She is being taken off the medicine pole for bathroom visits, which helps a lot with maneuverability around the room.
This afternoon, Bic had another trip down stairs to the lobby and gift shop. This time it was a large bunny she found. She was named Dollie!
Bic kept complaining of belly discomfort - not stomach and not nausea, but cramps lower down. This continued throughout the afternoon. She did get back in her chair once more to walk with visitors, but she had to cut her venture short because she felt too bad. We returned to her room mid afternoon and Bic spent the rest of the day in bed watching TV. Besides a few ice chips, Bic didn't really eat much more either.
Day 53 - March 30th
Again I arrived this AM to find Bic in great form. In fact she was awake and sat up in bed watching early episodes of Drake and Josh on her computer and all of this at the early hour of just gone 7am
We went through the morning ritual of eating breakfast - one small bite of scrambled egg and 4 segments of Mandarin oranges, getting dressed - of which she does about 70% herself now and brushing teeth which she does completely herself.
About 8.30am she has her vest treatment for the pneumonia, she still really hates this and it is 20 minutes long so it cuts into her 'free' time greatly.
The GI doc came in around 8.45am to see what was happening in preparation for her upper GI scope down in surgery today. As it was being related to him what had happened over the weekend and that because the nausea had gone away we didn't feel that the scope was necessary at this time he received a page from the GI attending stating that Becca's procedure had been canceled.
All her therapies then lasted through until 12 noon. She did rather well in them all, she did get really tired but she persevered until lunchtime.
For lunch she had 2 bites of hot dog and a spoonful of peas. I know it sounds pretty pitiful the amount of food she is eating but you have to remember that she is getting her full supplement of TPN feeding and some formula via her NJ tube, so she is never ever actually hungry. The plan for feeding is to slowly get her up to speed again with the formula through the NJ tube so that they can withdraw the TPN feeding. While that is happening we are trying to get her to take food by mouth but it is really difficult because she is full from her other feeds. It will work itself out eventually but our goal for now is to get the TPN infusions stopped as soon as possible.
Around 3.45pm she suffered through a really bad belly cramp. This was in the upper belly, there was no nausea with it just pain and it lasted around 10 minutes total. We figure it is just her belly complaining about being used again and hope that it is nothing more than that.
Dinner has just arrived, going to try and get some of that in her belly now. I wonder how many teeny-weeny bits I can get her to eat?
Love Mandy