Hello loved ones.
Michael has shown some improvement in his blood counts. However, the ascites continues to put pressure on his organs and back, sometimes painful and generally uncomfortable. Then he came down with a bladder infection, and one of the stitches on a biliary drain broke off. We communicated with the doctor’s offices and the message back to us was to go to the ER and get a paracentesis (draining of the fluid from the belly) and a urine test and a repaired biliary drain. The very next morning (Tuesday) we got up at 5AM in hopes that it wouldn’t be too busy at that time. It wasn’t busy, but we waited more than 4 hours before he was brought back to see a doctor. While we were waiting, a nurse rolled a patient in a wheel chair to wait in the lobby. I recognized the nurse as the man who took care of Michael on our last visit when he lost so much blood and passed out actually in the wheel chair and was unresponsive and had to be lifted from the chair to the bed as a dead weight. This nurse was tall, thin, slicked back blonde hair and generally quiet. To me he looked like a misplaced cowboy! He looked over at us and said,
“Hi! You made it! When I wheeled you into the ICU I didn’t know that you would survive. They don’t tell us– You look so much better than you did then. Praise the Lord!” And there it was, a heart of gold, this “cowboy” was caring for people from the heart.
Finally, we got called out of the lobby and Michael was placed in a bed in the hallway, and that’s where he was treated by an ER doctor. These days, since another hospital in town closed and there are not enough rooms, the hallways are peppered with patients laying in beds. We got to watch the busy staff interacting in the hallway and going from room to room.
So, by 330 PM, he had 4.4 liters of fluid drained from his belly, the stitch mended on his drain, and a prescription antibiotic for the bladder infection and we were able to head home.
He hasn’t felt well, likely due to the infection, but it is also mentally discouraging and a real adjustment to watch your body kind of stop working.
We did plan a birthday party for him this Sunday (his 74th) and some new friends are planning to visit for tea tomorrow am. Hopefully he will feel well enough to socially engage. We will see!
ALSO, Kelly McClane wrote some prose/poetry that I LOVED and she gave permission to share. You will find that new in the “stories” section.
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