Bozgratch

Right now any improvement is a good thing, and today it seems that everyone on the floor is happy about very little progress, but progress nonetheless.

His Kidney function is improving. Not normal readings today, nor for the last three days, but he has been much closer to normal now than since the surgery. And, he is passing urine. Not sure yet whether it’s the 30 ml/hr they look for as “normal” but he’s getting there.

When I arrived Jillian and a gang were in the room getting him cleaned up. Andres, Rochelle, and a couple others. Kind of a public care session, but he was bright and alert and wide eyed — more alert and perky than I’ve seen him — possibly since the surgery. Good days often follow bad ones and vice versa — so getting too excited may not be advisable, but it’s a positive sign no matter how you look at it.

Flickinger is again hoping he may be able to go off dialysis. How soon ? Undecided. Too soon to tell. But at least the doctor is talking that way — instead of worrying about his having refused to do the fistula. Last night when I talked with him he was actually “happy” that there was no surgery — saying that without surgical intervention he may have a chance to continue recovering rather than having a setback as a result of surgery.

Dr Slae (??? sp? Slea?) was in (GI). Nothing new. A little rectal bleeding with his stool, but not a lot. And he is back on his coumadin — surprise, surprise. I spoke with the doctor along about the reference to calling a colorectal specialist in, because when that conversation took place I wasn’t thinking enough to ask what that meant. Should he have serious and unremitting bleeding then the surgical result would be a removal of part or all of the colon (I assume that would also involve living with a colostomy bag for the rest of his life — not a pleasant thought) <this link was taken from a cancer site — but does NOT mean that he has cancer — only that this explanation was clearer than some of the others.>>

Dr Slae did say that no one wants to take this course, just that if it’s not controllable that would be the next direction to go given the amount of pain dad has related to stooling.

Prior to the aborted surgery he’d been getting fluids and a few meds to prep him for surgery — now he’s back to just his feeding tube and the routine medicines that get injected directly into the feeding tube.

Nurses: Jillian & Rochelle