Physically, Tom has had a variety of unpleasant symptoms today, ranging from mildly annoying to somewhat worrisome: dry cough, fluctuating oxygen levels, itchy skin, headache and dizziness, intermittent nose bleeds and little bruises, stomach gurgles and sore to touch, painfully sore throat, his first mouth sore, and (as icing on the cake) all his newly returned hair is falling out, increasing the itchiness!
The dry cough and low oxygen levels may have meant the beginning of a respiratory problem. They took him for chest x-rays today to rule out pneumonia, and his lungs are clear. They're running more detailed diagnostics on blood, urine and mucous(!) samples as they suspect something viral may be going on. However, the cough settled down so it may have been caused by the dry air in the room.
He slept really well, but woke with a painfully sore throat again...after consulting the doctor and pain services, they increased the pain meds, by adding a steady amount of pain killer at a basal rate as well as increasing the total amount of hydromorph his can give himself each hour through the PCA device. The pain has gone down from 7 out of 10 this morning, to a 1 or 2 now, and seems to be stable.
The dizziness and headache may be being caused by painkillers - Or, the dizziness and headache may be the result of lowered hemogloben levels - he'll receive a red blood transfusion later on, and we'll see if those symptoms subside.
The nose bleed and bruising is most likely the result of low platelet levels. Even though he received 250 ml of platelets yesterday, his platelet levels only moved from 9 to 11. Today, he received nearly twice the amount he received yesterday. He didn't get hives this time (yay!) but was really itchy. To find out whether his body is going to put this transfusion to better service, they took another blood sample 1 hour after the platelets finished going in. If his counts haven't moved at all, then they may need to change what type of platelets he can receive.
We think the stomach soreness was good old fashioned hunger: he was able to keep some Lucky Charms cereal and milk down, eat some watermelon (that's my Saskatchewan boy!), and enjoyed some beef stew for supper. The food may also help with the headache and dizziness...but it means he has to do more Chlorhexadine mouth rinses to try to prevent further mouth sores.
Between the tests, swabs, transfusions, doctor and specialist visits, application of ointments and mouth rinses, etc. he had a shower and then I changed the dressing on his broviac/central line. It's been a busy day - I started writing this post at noon and am only now able to finish it (over 6 hours later)!
I am so grateful that for every problem he encounters, there are solutions. Today is yet another day that we send a little thanks out to the wonderful blood and platelet donors - Tom wouldn't be here still without you! I'm also grateful for the great nurses, and the calm and adult attitude of our dear patient, he's done really well. Once the blood transfusion is finished, we hope to get a chance to relax and watch a movie or play a game.
So I don't want you to worry about Tom, we knew he was going to go through a few tough days to reach his goal. Thanks for checking in on us and your continued prayers to help him cope with any future hurdles. I really like the idea of what Steph said today - in any race, the last couple of laps are always the hardest!
Please remember Courtney, her surgeon and her family as her big operation comes up on Monday.
Bless you all,
Thomas' Mom
