One thing that's been very consistent with Karl's stay at St. Mary's is change. I'm so thankful that Karl is able to "go with the flow." The announcement of these changes never gives him any heartburn. The only issue I have is that if you don't keep up with the blog on a regular basis, you may have outdated information. And sometimes only minutes after I've put up another post, the information is obsolete. But I'm fine with it because I know all of these changes are made with Karl's best interest in mind; it's the kind of care he needs. I'm grateful the people there are not so rigid that they cannot change their minds as the situation necessitates.
The newest change is that Karl's plastic docs have said they don't want any extra pressure put on the skin graft on his bum. The cryoabrasion procedure would require him to lay on the graft for two hours straight and that would compromise the work they did. So, they've decided to have him come back in a couple months when the flap is well-healed (which, by the way, is pink and healing well). The nephrologist came in to tell Karl it wouldn't be a problem -- the cancer (if that's what it is) won't grow in that time period. Karl said it would be a nice birthday present to himself...another vacation in Rochester and another scar!
The CT-scan Karl had yesterday came back negative. YAY!! They did find another blood clot they think may have developed the same time as the other clot. The screen they put it two years ago will catch it and they told him it was nothing to worry about. Now they want to do a PET scan just to make doubly sure there's no other cancer lurking about. We'll see if the doctors can convince his insurance company to pay for some of it.
I asked Karl if he was sleeping well. I know he takes a lot of cat-naps during the day because he gets pestered so much. So I thought I'd lay out Karl's typical night/day. At midnight the nurse comes in and changes his dressings. At 1 a.m. he gets more pain meds. The nurse comes in from time to time from 1:30 to 5 a.m. to chart his vitals and give him more pain meds. They try not to wake him, but Karl's a light sleeper so when the nurse is counting his respirations, he normally wakes up and startles the nurse by opening his eyes widely, which brings him great delight. Last night Rebecca asked him why he wasn't sleeping and he told her with a sarcastic grin, "If you'd quit coming in here and staring at me I might get some sleep." Anyway, at 5 a.m. they come in for a blood draw; at 6 a.m. they change his dressings again and at 7 a.m. the doctors start rounding. For most of the daylight hours there are people in and out -- therapists, doctors, nurses, etc.
He's getting so much attention! Thanks be to God!
Blessings,
Kerry
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