Well, as I said in the last entry, things would probably be pretty uneventful for a while, and it has been pretty much that. Glenn has gotten over the shock of doing dialysis and the process has become pretty routine for him. He still won't look at the site of the tube coming out of his stomach when it is uncovered. I told him we would take it one step at a time. Last night was the first step: he didn't hold the pillow up over his eyes when I changed the dressing. He said he watched almost all of it except when the dressing was off. He knows he has to be able to look at the site if he wants to take a shower. He has been given the go-ahead to take a shower, but that's the one thing that holds him back. It's a good incentive for him to make himself be able to look at the site.
He found out that the reason he was so skinny and was so drained was that he actually was drained--too much. He was dehydrated from taking so much fluid off. There are 3 (actually 4) strengths of solution to use and he was using the strongest for every exchange so he was taking off too much fluid. (Didn't I say that? But, nooo, he had to hear it from a professional nurse.) So he has gotten more balanced and he's feeling better and adding a few pounds on now. He's hoping that soon he can start doing the nighttime dialysis and won't have to be doing exchanges 4 times a day.
The oncologist is gone on a month vacation so we don't see him for a few more weeks. We will know at that time if he is going to start Glenn on chemo again. He will check some of his lab levels and see what they have done to determine that. So for now, Glenn's hair is growing back in and he's feeling fairly well. He has recovered from the soreness of the surgery and is moving around well. He still "needs" his nightly foot rubs. (I'm just too good to him.) It's nice to have a lull between stressful events, to catch our breath. TTFN.
No comments:
Post a Comment