the art of distraction

melanie woke up not feeling well today. continued tummy pain and nausea. she has been dealing with it fairly well. not wanting her nurse in the room much, but at least being cooperative when she needs to check vitals. getting her meds in is really becoming a challenge. either the pressure is really high and pushes back out and/or giving a med causes a lot of pain. it's taken all morning to get neurontin and tylenol in. she still needs all her other meds plus she is needing zofran now. hoping they will switch zofran to iv so that one doesn't have to go through the tube too.

not feeling great

i did get her ostomy changed today. it had been on for a week and thankfully no leaks. also got her hair washed. it felt really good to get her hair washed; she enjoyed the warm water on her head and my scrubbing her scalp. i got through the front of her hair after it was washed, but the back is still complete tangled mess. it was about all she could handle to have me combing her hair on top of dealing with the tummy pain.

enjoying getting her hair washed

we got through those things and she was pretty grouchy and miserable. i got her loaded up in the wagon and we went outside. our friend jean came with (thanks for the visit jean!). we saw the fountain and looked for bunnies. melanie really wanted to see a bunny, but we never found one.

a trip outside, and she manages a smile

searching for bunnies in the bushes

then we walked around the hospital a little and went to the library to get different dvds.

getting out and doing different things has helped her manage the pain this morning, but it's tired her out. she is resting in bed watching a dvd from the library now. i still need to reaccess her port sometime today.

they are convinced the bacteria translocated from her gut. i asked whether they thought it was from her colon or small intestine. no way to know for sure of course. it is possible it translocated from her colon where that contrast has been sitting in there for six months; it's also possible it translocated from the small intestine. they are all on the same page now with agreement that the contrast is still in her colon from way back in nov/dec. we won't be taking care of it this hospital stay but later after she's fully recovered.

looks like the sun is coming out now. it was a little cool this morning. maybe we will go out again later. they are supposed to be having some video kiosk thing up here this afternoon, so we will probably take a look at that too. melanie is feeling a little better since the zofran, tylenol, and neurontin.