Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Edgy

Pads had a fairly busy night last night, dealing with him gungy, ulcerated mouth, but we were able to get snatches of sleep. He was a lot quieter today than yesterday, his condition was worse. All he could manage was listening to the audio book. I scraped a smile out of him with a couple of funny cat videos (see example below), but even the DS could not hold his attention for more than a few minutes.
We usually have one visit from a consultant, but Pads has had about four. His 'obs' have just not been great: blood pressure often too low, mottled and cold feet and hands, high pulse, running a temperature. On the second visit, the consultant ordered another antibiotic to go up - gentamicin. We are running the nurses ragged with all these infusions!
The critical period was late afternoon/early evening, when, if he did not stabilise, he would have been transferred to High Dependency, or even Critical Care. Thankfully, this was not necessary. It's too early to say we've turned a corner and it could all still go backwards. His counts have recovered by tiny amounts but he is still very neutrapenic.
With the risk of pressure sores and the like, an air mattress was ordered first thing and arrived mid afternoon. Pads actually finds it makes him itchy, but the sister is adament that he needs it and very pleased he's got it!

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