7-6 Quick update

Well here it is Saturday evening and I just wanted to get a couple of things down before going to bed. Dave is not having fun with this. The main complaints today have been achy joints - knees, ankles, hands, back - sore mouth, that feeling of something caught in his throat again, and some nausea. He did have a slight fever this evening - 99.4, so I finally got him to take two regular strength Tylenol (he can't have aspirin or aspirin based products, so I can't give him anything else). I tried to get him to take either the Phengren or the Kytril for the nausea, but he isn't too keen on the idea.

The trip to the clinic (Lake Wright office) today was fairly uneventful. Dr. Atienza's nurse, Kathy, was there today, and is keeping an eye on us. She again stressed the importance of fluids - Gatorade, Jello, soup, stuff that will keep Dave hydrated and be easy on his throat. On the way home, we stopped and picked up some Gatorade, and he's consumed about 24 oz since 2pm. The hard part is getting him to eat or drink. He did have a couple of sausage, 2 over-easy eggs and a piece of toast for dinner tonight. Then proceeded to go to bed at 7pm - he is just tired of feeling horrible.

Both his PEG and PICC are looking fine, but this is about the time that he gets a small infection with his PEG - it starts oozing more - a white to yellow snot like substance. So far it is looking good, and his PICC is looking good as well. Speaking of PICC, had a slight problem with the home care folks, and their visit schedule. Dave's PICC dressing is supposed to be changed every 3-7 days - we are on the 7 day schedule to minimize the wear and tear on his arm with the adhesive. Three weeks ago when Dave was noticing his PICC wound was getting red and had a slight discharge, we had them come out a day early - Friday instead of Saturday. This in turn was to shift the dressing change to Fridays, last week - no problems, yesterday - when we didn't hear from the nurse by 10, I called them and was told his visit was on Saturday. A few phone calls later, things were straightened out, their supervising nurse came out and changed his dressing, and ensured us that he was scheduled for Fridays. Of course all of this compounded with Dave's current disposition, made it an enjoyable Friday in this Vigal's household.

Well - so much for a quick update...I'm still sticking with the mantra of one day at a time, and tomorrow will be better. Take care and stay safe as you finish out this year and bring in the next.