Day 13 - Plodding along ...

Jonathan continues to plod along.  Some of the symptoms of problems that the medical team were expecting to show up earlier are now starting to show up now.  Some of these symptoms include:

1. Increased weight and bloating - caused by his capillaries leaking fluid into his body.
2. More regular transfusion - I estimate that Jonathan is getting platelets every day now and blood (hemoglobin) almost every day.  Last week they had raise the limits or criteria for initiating a transfusion - so for platelets his WBC limit was increased from 15k to 30k and his hemoglobin was increased to 10.  So anytime his white blood cells (WBC) drops below 30k, Jonathan gets a transfusion.

The news this morning is that there are more things happening (cannot spell the words so being vague for now) so Jonathan has an ultra-sound this morning to check on the working of his liver and kidney.  Since the weekend there has been trace amounts of blood in his urine - with the detectable amount of blood being between 11 to 12 prior to a (platelet) transfusion and dropping to 3 to 4 about 18 hours after a transfusion.  The theory right now is that the trace amounts of blood is due to his WBC being so low.

Now, whenever I talk to the residents, I always start off with, "so ... what is the theory ..." because when we get a new resident, it's always a theory.  I found out (today) from Gabby that the medical team were not flushing his peripheral line as regularly as they should, i.e. they are suppose to flush it every 8 hours, but now they are on the ball.  It's these kinds of things that just irate the crap out of me.  Am I a nurse?  Am I a doctor?  WTF is wrong with these people - you are in the health-care industry - you are fully aware of what is involved - you know your field - why do we, as parents, need to keep on top of things?

I am just waiting for the day the tables are turned and I get a chance to serve a doctor who is having a computer related issue.  I'll definitely give them a piece of their own medicine!

All in all, my ranting does not imply the care at Stanford is shoddy.  I know (deep down) that the care that Jonathan is getting is one of the best and I think of Stanford as the lesser of the two evils, meaning, I'm sure I'll have more issues to deal with if I was at another hospital.  My question is, should I not demand for perfection?  I know the customers at my company usually do, and my work isn't life threatening!

So Jonathan continues to mosey along: not very mobile, on a very serious supply of pain medications, still vomiting, still in pain, and definitely NOT enjoying himself!  I'm just glad I don't have to deal with it : ) - which is unfair to Gabby but I definitely don't have the resources to deal with worrying about work and worrying about the hospital.  I think Jonathan's active care is a full time job and Gabby is doing that well enough.