Saturday, August 28, 2010

Fire and ice

Quite a rough day again. In the morning he was in a lot of pain and the background morphine was increased. At least this was able to bring his pain back under control. That meant he was able to use his voice a bit but it makes him sound like he's inhaled helium.
He's still troubled by sticky saliva. I was mulling over the contents of the link in my previous post about mucositis. In particular the line:
Sucking ice cubes is a simple but often effective method of relieving oral mucositis.
Strangely, only the doctors seemed to know about this and the consultant thought it was a great idea. We had some ice-moulds and there's a freezer in the LATCH accommodation. There was a slight issue of getting the right size lump of ice but when it went in he seemed to enjoy the way it loosens up the saliva. Mum got him some of those ice-sticks (ice-lollies in polythene) so we'll see how he take to them.
Tonight he was having infusions of a unit each of platelets and blood, as his HB has also started to wane and there are signs that blood is appearing in more places along his gut. Temps have varied today between 38 and 38.7 so there's something going on inside (by way of infection) but he's already getting two types of antibiotic and an antifungal IV.
But another day passes, a day closer to healing up, and "A day's march nearer home".

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