Hospital Day 2

This is still Donna writing. Last night was not a very good one for Calvin. He finished receiving his 2 bags of blood around midnight. While receiving the blood, which took about 5 or 6 hours, his vital signs had to be checked every hour. (Now they are checked every 4 hours.) He was in a lot of pain and did not sleep much last night. The end of the catheter where it exits his body was very painful. So he asked for and received a tube of analgesic gel to apply to that area and that pain is now under control. He also began having severe low back/sciatica pain. His nurse got him a water heatingpad and that has helped a lot. A new pain drug was added to his medications. He was hooked up to a morphine pain pump that he controls by pushing a little green button which releases a dose of morphine through the IV line. He needed it a lot in the night, but not as much today. While on the morphine pump he has to have his CO2 levels monitored, so he has to wear a tube line at his nose which keeps a check on his breathing. Twice during the night his catheter quit draining due to blood clots. His nurse had to come in both times and back flush the catheter, breaking loose the clots and enabling the catheter to do its job. Only one other time during today was that necessary.

But today his pain was very well managed and under control. All the pain medication, as well as the lack of a good sleep, has caused Calvin to be very drowsy and he slept off and on all day long. He is eating his meals, and drinking his waters. We even watched a Miss Marple movie together this afternoon, but it took us about 4 sessions to get through it. Calvin kept drifting off to sleep. The missionaries that Calvin has been talking to stopped in and visited him this evening and gave him some more to think about. In the morning the urologist will be stopping back in. This morning he told us that he wanted to wait 24 hours and see if Calvin still has as much blood in his urine, or if things have improved. He may do a cystoscope or not tomorrow. We will find out after he sees Calvin in the morning and decides what the next step will be.