Monday Rebound
After a steady week of incremental but noticeable progress, Dan took the Sabbath to rest. Less than a week out of ICU, he was marching up and down the hallways so by Sunday he was pretty tired again. The drug recipe (see last post) is a delicate trade-off between baseline pain management, nausea, post-surgical pain management, and sleep. The medication for one makes the other three harder to fix. The anti-nasea medication puts him to sleep, but doesn't remove the pain. The painkillers make him nauseous. The nurses just want to get him to a place where he can be 1) awake, 2) relatively pain free, and 3) confidently munching solid food again. They're getting closer, but Sunday was a hard day.
It was also the day that saucepot Jordan Borghum of DC improv fame and communard/insurrectionist Kate Adamson arrived for a visit. Two incredible Witt women who live in the area. One of the nurses remarked last night that Dan was by far the most popular guest they've had -- she also questioned the disproportionately large number of attractive female visitors (6 by my count). Now bear in mind that NIH is also where a lot of foreign dignitaries (kings, princes even) stay when they want some discrete, quality medical treatment that goes the extra mile w/r/t security. So Dan's parade of friends comes across more like a rock star's entourage at NIH. At least, that's how it felt when Tom Haushalter, in an ill-advised bout of drunken horseplay, set fire to the rug in the 7SW wing and then threw an IV pole at one of the orderlies. No, wait, that was one of the singers from Oasis. Yeah. They're never visiting Dan again.
But Monday was much better. All at once, it seems, the nasuea, pain, and grogginess are clearing up. At least for the moment. Dan's parents, who haven't strayed more than 20 feet from his bedside since last Monday, finally got to sleep at The Lodge yesterday -- comforted, at last, that Dan's condition is no longer critical. I actually got to hang out with the dude for a few hours yesterday while he was more lucid. The last hurdle, apart from the ongoing alchemy project that is his medication, seems to be occupational therapy. That's when a nice lady comes in to work with the weakness in Dan's left hand through a variety of therapudic exercises such as Fist Making, Fork Holding, Nose Picking, and other such essential skills. They even give him special therapudic toys to play with:
But for all of yesterday's successes, the Occupational Therapist didn't show up. They think it's because everyone's getting used to the non-holiday schedule again. So the O.T. is probably stuck at an airport in Ketchican or something.
The O.T. stuff -- silly though it may seem on the surface -- is very important because he's been eager to get back to the keyboard. He checks all the e-mail himself now, but if you're still wondering where to send stuff, just put the address request in the subject line and one of us will get you his mail info. He'll most likely be in his hospital room for another five/six days and then either at The Lodge or my place for a while, I'm guessing.
And if you're in the care package mood, I might suggest sending food. We all know the guy's got a sweet tooth, but they're also short on quality coffee here. I mention this because in the past couple days, his appetite's returned. I watched him scarf a chicken pot pie last night and I think he's making up for lost time now that the nausea has died down.
Crap. In the middle of typing that last paragraph, I just got a call from Dan's dad saying that today, Tuesday, has been more of a "Sunday." I was going to swing by this evening, but Dan's just issued a request to have no visitors tonight. Looks like the pain spiked back up again and they're still working on the medication strategy. Well, phooey. At least he's riding the pleasure/pain sine-curve in daily units instead of hourly.
We'll see how he's doing tomorrow evening when I can post again.
-->KM
It was also the day that saucepot Jordan Borghum of DC improv fame and communard/insurrectionist Kate Adamson arrived for a visit. Two incredible Witt women who live in the area. One of the nurses remarked last night that Dan was by far the most popular guest they've had -- she also questioned the disproportionately large number of attractive female visitors (6 by my count). Now bear in mind that NIH is also where a lot of foreign dignitaries (kings, princes even) stay when they want some discrete, quality medical treatment that goes the extra mile w/r/t security. So Dan's parade of friends comes across more like a rock star's entourage at NIH. At least, that's how it felt when Tom Haushalter, in an ill-advised bout of drunken horseplay, set fire to the rug in the 7SW wing and then threw an IV pole at one of the orderlies. No, wait, that was one of the singers from Oasis. Yeah. They're never visiting Dan again.
But Monday was much better. All at once, it seems, the nasuea, pain, and grogginess are clearing up. At least for the moment. Dan's parents, who haven't strayed more than 20 feet from his bedside since last Monday, finally got to sleep at The Lodge yesterday -- comforted, at last, that Dan's condition is no longer critical. I actually got to hang out with the dude for a few hours yesterday while he was more lucid. The last hurdle, apart from the ongoing alchemy project that is his medication, seems to be occupational therapy. That's when a nice lady comes in to work with the weakness in Dan's left hand through a variety of therapudic exercises such as Fist Making, Fork Holding, Nose Picking, and other such essential skills. They even give him special therapudic toys to play with:
But for all of yesterday's successes, the Occupational Therapist didn't show up. They think it's because everyone's getting used to the non-holiday schedule again. So the O.T. is probably stuck at an airport in Ketchican or something.
The O.T. stuff -- silly though it may seem on the surface -- is very important because he's been eager to get back to the keyboard. He checks all the e-mail himself now, but if you're still wondering where to send stuff, just put the address request in the subject line and one of us will get you his mail info. He'll most likely be in his hospital room for another five/six days and then either at The Lodge or my place for a while, I'm guessing.
And if you're in the care package mood, I might suggest sending food. We all know the guy's got a sweet tooth, but they're also short on quality coffee here. I mention this because in the past couple days, his appetite's returned. I watched him scarf a chicken pot pie last night and I think he's making up for lost time now that the nausea has died down.
Crap. In the middle of typing that last paragraph, I just got a call from Dan's dad saying that today, Tuesday, has been more of a "Sunday." I was going to swing by this evening, but Dan's just issued a request to have no visitors tonight. Looks like the pain spiked back up again and they're still working on the medication strategy. Well, phooey. At least he's riding the pleasure/pain sine-curve in daily units instead of hourly.
We'll see how he's doing tomorrow evening when I can post again.
-->KM
posted by Dan at 2:03 PM
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