Day 7: Fight with the IV Pump

Dad Stats:
Most recent temperature: 96.9F
Most recent blood pressure: 103/53
Today's white blood cell count: 0.20

Today will be my first 24 hours watching Dad and aside from the several escape attempts, the fingernail incident and watching the GOP Presidential Debate it has been pretty slow. For the most part I did not sleep last night so the time was spend on constant Dad observations and uploading product information to the web. In fact...if anybody has FaceTime you can video chat with Dad or I any time.

Dad had his daily checkout with the nurses this morning and then jumped in the shower. Dad does not seem to be as medicated as Eva indicated yesterday but he is still chattering in his sleep a fair bit. The Dr. (I can't remember her name!) came to see us late last night and actually mentioned that Dad was not pressing the pain medicine button as much as he had been. It was interesting to see that the pain med machine actually keeps track of user inputs. The Dr. and Nurse can actually tell how often the button is pressed and if the button is pressed before the timer in the machine allows the next treatment. Apparently the button pressing trends are a really good way to track pain levels. Dad has been indicating that the pain level he has been at (for the last 8 hours) is about a 2/10.

Another observation I had this morning was that even though Dad is not really eating he can defiantly get his meds down pretty quick. The nurse (I am really bad with names!) seemed very surprised that Dad just swallowed the entire cup of meds and chugged down some water. Hopefully this is some indication that the mouth sores are starting to go away and that Dad's appetite will return shortly.

One of the most exciting things that has developed today is a small leak in the fluid bag / IV pump. I noticed it at about 3:00 AM but just thought that Dad or I dropped some water on the floor. It turned out to be a slow leak from where the IV bag attaches to the IV Pump. Our first attempt at repairing the problem was to basically tighten the fitting. That seemed to fix the problem for about an hour or two before Dad started to leave an IV juice trail again. After evaluating our options we decided that it was best to call the nurse in for a third opinion. The eventual solution was to replay the IV baggy and all of the plumbing that goes along with it. By about 10:30 the plumbing project was completed and Dad was back resting without leaving a puddle or a trail.

Around 11:00 Dad got some stomach meds and has pretty much been zonked out since. Whatever they gave him has started to give him weird dreams or something. I just went to get a quick snack and asked Dad if he would be okay while I was gone. He said he would be fine but want me to pick up some 'pony pads' from the drug store on the way back. I agreed and just went to get some coffee. Upon my return I let Dad know I was back in my seat. Dad was glad I returned but asked if I was able to 'check the dogs out of the library.'

About 2:00 or so Dad and I went on a walk around the ward. Dad is making pretty good time and is actually pretty hard to keep up with. After we got back from the walk Dad went ahead and started working on a nap. It sounds like Dad might be getting some more platelets today but we have not had them yet. Vic is on her way down to Birmingham to take over Dad shift so that is all from the Dad blog for today!