Thursday

At last, a chance to sit down and blog.

Poor Michael - looked so forlorn when I arrived this morning. I knew from when I'd spoken to the nurse before I left home that his temperature had spiked again during the night. He'd also just been sick so was feeling rather yuck. Apparently the night time nurse had been a pushover and Michael had convinced her (sure he smiled and apologised!!) around 1am to put his stomach tube on freeflow. When the day nurse came back on duty, it was closed. I could never ever put myself in Michael's position and know how he feels but sometimes he makes me laugh (not funny though) because he knows too much about what's going on and is happy to nurse himself.

His sister had been keeping him company but it didn't look like he was interested in too much conversation. The two of us had a good catch up though.

His enteral feed had been stopped and replaced with water instead as he was so dehydrated. Another venflon had stopped working and a new one was just being put in. Then one lot of antibiotics was injected through, paracetomol and then more antibiotics on a drip.

He was having hot flushes again and the fan went on - I also stuffed ice in the latex gloves and put them on the soles of his feet to cool him down.

Eventually the nurse came to insert the picc line. It was about a half hour procedure, with about the same time to set up. The nurse who does it literally inserts picc and hickman lines all day. I did watch the whole procedure but ensured I didn't have 100% visison so as not to pass out. Fascinating - they do an ultrasound so they can see which is a good vein to go into. Unfortunately, Michael doesn't have many good veins left but she did find one. Couldn't really explain exactly what she did next but there seemed to be lots of blood, extremely long needles and a bit of wincing from Michael (only from the local anaesthetic). Two lumens (tubes that go into the vein) - one for bloods, injections, etc and the other for tpn (which they are still hopeful won't have to be used). Can't imagine how long it will take for the bruises on Michael's arms to now clear up. He was waiting for an xray before the picc can be used just to check all was in the correct place.

Just before I left, the water going into Michael's enteral feed was about to finish and the food was to restart. He feels quite comfortable now with this - which is excellent news and the more feed he can tolerate this way, the more unlikely he is to need tpn. The other positive news is that his citrolene levels have gone up from 25 (last week) to 45. This is the levels which show how much his bowel is absorbing - so the higher the number, the better.

So now that he's got his picc line, its another two weeks of antibiotics. The Surgeon spoke to Michael today and he feels all the little 'floating bugs' are in his joints, which is why Michael feels flu-like, with very achy joints.

By about 2.30pm, Michael started to feel a little (miniscule) bit better. I coaxed him out the room for a walk down the corridor. Would have quite liked to have wrapped him up warm and taken him for a 'ride' in the wheelchair but as he was waiting for the xray we couldn't wander off. While he was on a roll, we went back to the room, I washed his hair, he shaved and washed. And then, my Michael was back in the room (well more my Michael than when I'd arrived!!). Think it also made him feel a little bit more like himself and he even sat in the armchair rather than climb back into bed.

In no time at all, it was time to set off back home. Left him with the nurse aspirating his stomach tube (which is now always firmly closed!!).

Really is a rollercoaster ride - was never keen on theme parks!!!!

Night xx