Blake's Health Update 2010/06/17

Happy Thursday, June 17th!

First of all..... Thursday???? ALREADY??????

And secondly, June 17th????? You're KIDDING me???

Where did the first two weeks of June go?

Blake has been moved to a room. We're not on the proper floor nor the proper wing, as they are obviously running short on beds. But we're THRILLED to have a private room! AND our tv is working! AND I have a geri-chair, so I can actually lay down (somewhat) and sleep.

We are, at this moment, (2:28pm), waiting for the FIFA CUP Soccer game to begin. This afternoon's game is France vs. Mexico. I decided I would go for Mexico because I met some very nice Mexicans when I was at Dane & Valerie's house in California in 2005. Blake said he's going for Mexico too because he "doesn't like the French". haha

If I can't decide which team to go for in sports, I decide which team has the nicer jersey. The Mexican team have a bright green uniform that looks like the same colour of green that is in the Brazillian's yellow & green uniform.... so we have to keep things matching, right?

Overall, since Canada is not competing (which really annoys me!), then we will root for Brazil. (Sorry Sophie.... But we promise that Greece will be our second choice, just for YOU!) (Oh yes, and USA is competing too......)

OK, Greece, USA, & Brazil will be our top three teams with Brazil placing first. Oh, I'm assuming there's an African team..... I should be supporting them for my sister, Wannett's, sake.

Can we just ALL be friends???? haha. Alrighty then, that's enough of soccer. Those of you not following it will be bored completely by now.

So, as I said, we're in a room and are quite comfortable. Nothing has changed as far as diagnosis and treatment. Still getting a med to treat the infection of C-Diff; getting Heparin because he's been in bed for two weeks.... Heparin will prevent blood clots; still getting morphine; not as much nausea meds; still 30mg of Prednisone. Thankfully they haven't increased the Prednisone because it has to be weaned down at SUCH a slow rate.

They are not allowing Blake to eat anything. Nor drink anything other than sips of water. Dr. Yu (sp?) wants his bowels to just have a rest. Of course Blake is dying to eat. He's hungry, but is getting nourishment through the I.V., so don't think he's fading away in here. I'm not eating in front of him anymore, but he'll look at me with those sad puppy-dog eyes just begging for a bite. Tuesday night he took two bites of my salmon sandwich and he savoured every chew. And he doesn't even like salmon! I cheated yesterday and gave him a couple of potato chips and told him to let them melt in his mouth and then chew chew chew!!!! Then he had one bite of a granola bar.

This morning he lay here looking out into space and very matter-of-factly said, "When I get outta here, I am going to eat and eat and eat. And I want Chinese Food on the way home!" haha.

Dr. Weymouth (sp?) was in here this morning and said she'll be sending the dietician to talk to Blake, but it didn't mean that he would be allowed to eat yet. I, myself, could kill for a bag of crunchy chips right now, but there's no way I'll eat them in front of him. I'll sneak out in a while and have some where he can't see me. hahahahahahaaaaa

Sorry to the girls in The County who wanted a picture of the attractive Man Nurse in the E.R. I COULD walk down into Emerg with my camera and find him, but Security might wonder what I'm doing. My son is hospitalized, and I'm being dragged down to the police station in a paddy-wagon to explain why I photographing a nurse in KGH's Emerg!

"But REALLY, Officer, it's not for ME but my girlfriends in The County!"

Yah.

NOT gonna go over well.

Our Man Nurse reminds me of one of Jared's hockey coaches a bit. So, ladies, get your kids involved in The Prince Edward Kings and you'll have a good LIVE picture of my Man Nurse. (hahaha... I just said "MY Man Nurse".... tee-hee.... I meant "Blake's". [snicker]).

Sorry, I know I'm not being well organized in this post.... watching the soccer game and blogging at the same time.... I'm all over the map [ba-dump-bump.... get it? All over the map? World Soccer? hahaha.... bad joke]

Anyways, Dr. Weymouth said they'll have to do more testing of Blake's stools next week to determine if the C-Diff infection is under control. The problem here is that a Crohn's flare-up produces diahrea. C-Diff infection also produces diahrea. Can't treat the Crohn's with Remicade until the infection is cleared up. So the problem lies in determining whether the diahrea is from the Crohn's or the C-Diff. Tests next week should show whether the infection has settled. Meanwhile, Blake remains on antibiotics until Monday. Then we hopefully will know more.

By the way, the Gmail does not seem to work properly on Blake's computer. He said he was having problems with it in New Brunswick as well, so I will only check my emails occasionally while in hospital. If there's an urgent message, try using my Message Box via Facebook. It will be much easier. Always feel free to drop a line or two on my Facebook Wall or Blake's Facebook Wall. The comments are encouraging for him and he so much appreciates everyone's prayers.

Blake is serving the Lord even from his hospital bed in the Emerg. Last night an older woman across from us was very distressed. She'd been fine the night before and all of Wednesday; however, last night she became very aggitated. She felt the nurses were lying to her and trying to trick her. She kept asking for the doctor.

She later became very aggitated and walked out of her cubicle. The problem was that she was hooked up to an I.V. and oxygen. Her I.V. ripped out, and blood was dripping all over the place. The nurse tried to apply pressure to her arm to stop the bleeding and the woman was trying to run from her to find a doctor. Her cubicle was directly across from Blake's, and Blake could see when she was trying to escape again.

Blake would talk to her and tell her to just sit down and just try to calm down. She kept saying that she couldn't trust them, and that they were tricking her. She tried to tell Blake that they would be taking us all away. Then she spoke of refrigerators and big trucks. Blake wondered if she was referring to a cold ambulance.

When she saw the cleaning staff come in to clean one of the cubicles, she got very anxious again. At one point I had to enter her cubicle because the nurses had gone to help others and I was afraid she was going to rip out the I.V. again. Also, because I was gowned up, I think she thought I was a nurse; so I just let Blake continue talking to her.

Blake called for a nurse once, and the nurse said, "Why don't you just continue encouraging her to sit down.... she seems to be responding to you!" So Blake calmly kept encouraging her that everything was OK; that the nurses were there to help her; and that the doctors would be in to see her in the morning. She felt they were getting paid more money to "take us away".

Nurse Janice told us that they had a room ready for us, and when we were moved from the Emerg to a room last night, my fear was that when this lady opened her curtain and found that we were not there, she was probably afraid that "the bad guys had come and taken us away by truck to the refrigerators!" I hope that she had a restful night and was reassured by nurses that we, in fact, had not been hauled away in a cold truck!

But I was proud of Blake for speaking calmly with her and telling her that all would be OK. He kept telling her that the nurses weren't here to harm her, but that they were a blessing to us and were here to help. If Blake didn't go into the Ministry, I think he should be in health care. He has a caring nature about him.

Anyways, I seem to be very long-winded today. Probably because I had a nap at lunch time and have got my "second wind". I'm gonna go and watch the rest of the game with Blake. We had to shut the door because I was starting to get my hockey voice and I didn't want the nurse coming in and telling me to be quiet. hahaha. (Thinking of your Facebook video, Chris P., but I'm not quite that wild!)

Not expecting many changes in Blake's treatment over the next few days, but I'll try and keep up with some posts (likely shorter! haha) just to keep in touch.

Enjoy your FIFA, everyone! (Mexico is ahead 1-0 with mere minutes left in the game! Do I know how to pick 'em or what?)

(Rats! They just shut our tv off with MINUTES left in the game!!!!! At least we can watch it online!)