Day 41: T+41 A second go around

Readmitted. 

8 o'clock comes early for two people who have twelve hours of TPN every night. We got TPN started early last night, took all of his nighttime medications and went to bed.

By 12:30am the mayhem started. We didn't know then, but as the night continued on it was nausea, constipation and a pain level of a 6 all night long. 

We tried every nausea medicine we had (3!), googled the most comfortable side to help ease nausea, called the BMT unit for advice, and I even called my mom. Since he was coming in at 8am this morning the BMT unit said to try the medicine and come to our appointment in the morning unless things got worse. 

Things didn't get worse but they definitely didn't get better. There were a lot of backscratches, random ideas tried to help ease the pain and no sleep or comfort for Eric.

7:15 rolled around and the TPN was done and we were out the door twenty minutes later. In we strolled to the BMT clinic, Eric got his blood drawn and weight. Then it was talking to the nurse, and the PA while we waited for all of his labs to come back. 

Good news his his blood counts are going upward and onward as we love them to do! The bad news is high liver function (higher than it ever was during the six weeks in the hospital) and all sorts of concerns on the lab results. 

It was then that the PA Barb talked to the doctors and readmitted him. He's now found a fourth room to try out on east 8. 

Once he was admitted they could give

him medication to ease his pain and nausea. As soon as they gave him the medicine he began to feel better. Yahoo! The 14 hours of pain and suffering were over!

Unfortunately when one pain is done, it's on to another. A CT scan was ordered and so the pain of drinking 'lemonade' flavored contrast began. Not only that but he had to have a peripheral IV for the contrast (apparently the central line he has can't do contrast, boo!)

She did get it in one stick though. A million awesome points for her!

His victory face.

Up close:

Pink and green!

The results of the CT scan came back showing some mild fluid around his pancreas and no dialation of his ducts. They are calling it mild pancreatitis. More will be done tomorrow to figure out the source of the pain and nausea. 

Other random highlights was seeing who I have named scanner man:

Scanner man comes in every few days and scans the pumps and other barcoded items. It's always so random and awkward because he never has introduced himself or explained what it is that he's doing. Strange. 

Here's to figuring out the source of the problem quickly! Eric's such a trooper! He's taking this all in stride and never complains of the hard things he has to do. Makes me love him more and more. I've got a good one!