Mr. Cheeks Goes to the Hospital: A good night's sleep!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A good night's sleep!

Alan slept through the night! There was no need for any additional morphine with either the button or nursing bolus. In fact, he only used the button seven times yesterday. Looks like we might have hit the right level on the PCA to keep him comfortable. The tube feed was turned off last night since he had so much nausea and vomiting yesterday. We didn't want it running while we were asleep and couldn't keep a close eye on him. It was turned back on this morning once everyone was awake.

The attending was happy to hear we have good pain control. We are hoping that the nausea will ease when the chemo infusion ends in a couple of days. The dietician came in to see how he was doing. As a way of hedging if the vomiting is caused by the feeds and a slow gut, we will try a formula that is partially pre-digested which will hopefully be easier for Alan to process.

A doc from Interventional Radiology came to have a look at the G-tube. During the last dressing change there was a little redness we wanted to double-check and the suture holding the tube in place had come loose. The doc said the site looked like it should after one week and what little redness we saw last time was gone. He snipped the suture off the tube and repositioned the tube at the right insertion depth (there was a handy little mark on the tube to guide us). We will continue to be sure the tube is inserted deeply enough with each dressing change and as the track heals it will hold the tube in place better. Just in case, he took a picture of the site for reference and to show the IR doc that had put Alan's G-tube in. The nurses swabbed the site of the tube to culture, as well as swabbing and changing the dressing on his nephrostomy tubes.

After the exam and dressing changes, we went on another big walk, exploring the Duncan Building at the other end of the skybridge and the Rotary House. While we grabbed a snack at a cafe on the other side, Alan pointed to a bag of chips, which we got for him of course. He actually ate a chip and a half! When we returned to the 10th floor, Alan told us he wanted to paint as we walked by the play room. We set him up with paint and paper which he splashed around for a while before playing with cars and a twisting track. It was so good to see him having fun.

When we got back to his room and were happy to deal with a big poop. Getting out and about and sitting up in wheel chair seems to help. He is still dealing with lots of intermittent nausea and vomiting, though not as severe as yesterday.