Saturday 10:30 AM April 23, 2011

It's a quiet Saturday morning.....the sun is trying really hard to break through the haze. 

Yesterday started out rough, but by late afternoon, things were better.  Ed's pretty frustrated about having to stay longer, but the doctors are being very careful with him after the history of infections, etc.  They haven't decided about putting in a PICC line today - we'll wait for Dr. Mazur's partner to come in this afternoon and decide.  The blood cultures came back with 2 positive blood infections, but the cultures still haven't narrowed them down exactly, so they are continuing with the 2 broad-spectrum antibiotics for now.  The infection in his testicle has also come back so he's a little uncomfortable with that. They hope to have things under control enough to talk about letting him go home Monday or so. 

Ed had a very rough time yesterday - he decided to go without any of his "comfort" medications (dilaudid, ativan, zofran)  all day (????) as an "experiment".   Let's just say that the next time he's so bored that he decides to start conducting medical experiments on himself, I've promised to bring knitting needles and yarn and force to him to learn knitting!  By 3 PM, he was literally a basket case and willing to consider the possibility that the medications perhaps MIGHT serve an important purpose.  He allowed the nurse to give him the proper doses.  He called me an hour later and said "wow, what a difference a "Bin Laden" day can make!   When the nurse asked him why he did that, he told her he was conductiong an experiment.  She gave him a look that I couldn't duplicate if I tried...... hopefully enough said on that topic!

We have an appointment at UCLA on Friday next week to discuss the stem cell program, so Ed is trying hard to get permission from the doctors to make a quick trip to the lake on Wednesday and come home Thursday.  If the infusions are logistically possible, that's what we're trying for.  It will be fun to get away even for an overnight trip.  Keep your fingers crossed that it happens.  his next chemo is scheduled for May 2, so we have a little window.  Pray for great weather as well - he deserves a day of sunshine!

I'm getting ready to go up to the hospital (came home after midnight and slept in a little) and I'll let you know later how he's doing.  He sounded good on the phone this morning and I'm going to take something yummy for lunch to surprise him.  Looking forward to a better day.  Later will all about the Easter basket prep - have all the ingredients and I love putting 'em together.

Have a wonderful day.  By the way, Ed's white count is up to 3.2 so he can have visitors if you're so inclined.  Just call us first cause he may have the minor surgery at some point this weekend to put in a PICC line and he's usually unavailable for several hours when that happens.