Saturday, April 2, 2011

What a change of pace!  We got home around 6:30 last night and Lisa Teevan, our home health care nurse, came by and reviewed all the meds (8 of them!) plus the TPN and it's supplements and additives that go in fresh each day - a little like making a meal in a bag for Ed.   Went to the pharmacy at 8:30 PM and got the prescriptions refilled along with the Tegaderm dressings that lets him shower and keep the port incision drainage tubes and PICC line dry.  It would be a shame to pass up taking advantage of the beautiful new tumbled marble tile shower in the new bathroom.   It's also a steam shower, so there's a bench in the shower that he can sit on and use the hand-held unit so it's very relaxing.

Ed had a bit of a rough night - he didn't feel very well, but his temp stayed at 99.3 all night.  Lisa explained that his fluids are shifting with the change from full time PPN to 14-hour compressed TPN at home,  along with the switch from IV meds to oral and sublingual meds at home.  He had pretty bad night sweats - but it felt good to sleep in a regular bed!  Things settled down for him around 4 AM so we slept until about 9.    He feels better this morning and Robert Winter is here visiting for a bit before he leaves to go to the airport to return to Oregon later this afternoon.

Our friends Craig and Katie had a new baby girl on Thursday at Los Robles - little Ashlyn joins her 23-month old sister Bryn and the whole family is doing well.  Congrats to you - sorry we weren't able to come by a visit in the hospital yesterday - it's always such a whirlwind getting everything set up and organized to home.  We hope to see you and your new little one soon. 

Ed has a busy week ahead - he will have a CT scan on Monday or Tuesday, see Dr.. Menco on Wednesday and Dr. Mazur on Friday.  Then we will have some information about what's next for the chemo schedule.  I really hope he'll have a week of peace and quiet at home before the next round.  Last night we just sat for a while in the chair with the doors open (it was 75 degrees out!) and mostly enjoyed the SILENCE!  All we could hear was the sound of the birds in the yard.  You forget what quiet sounds like after being in the hospital for a while - all the machinery, people, pumps, activity in the hallways, etc.  The silence was almost deafening by comparison!

Ed has gone for a ride with Robert Winters (to whom I gave STRICT instructions before they left) and I'm baking oatmeal raisin cookies from my grandmother's recipe.  It's a little dreary out and a fog layer has enveloped the ravine behind our home, but no rain.  It's a perfect baking, puttering in the kitchen kind of day and that's exactly what I intend to do. 

Call us if you'd like to visit now - his whites are up to 3.8 so he can have company as long as no one is sick and we just have the extra precautions of vigorous hand washing, keeping distance and avoiding direct contact.   He gets tired pretty easily, so we'll just go day by day.

Gotta run and take my cookies out of the oven.........