Each day is a new day! Today the doctor visit proved to be a bit more informative than we anticipated. Yesterday and this morning the nurses focused on asking Sam about going home. When I heard that, I about had heart failure myself. Luckily, when the doctor showed up, he put a stop to it all in one sentence. Sam is not to do any excessive movement due to the clot next to the right side of his heart. Any excessive movement could cause a massive coronary and that would be that. The right side of his heart is working hard to do what it is supposed to, only it cannot. This leads to the left side of the heart needing to basically work overtime. Hard thing is, the left side is dealing with pulmonary tumors which have more or less flattened some of the veins and arteries. Sam's situation is much more dire than either one of us imagined. The doctor does want him to slowly begin moving, starting with just going from the bed to the bathroom and that is only if he can do it without losing his breath. The doctor does not want Sam (as of this morning anyway) to even think about going home until he is able to walk around PCU without needing to rest. This might be a long haul. Then again, he might get up tomorrow and be able to do just that.
I go from being scared out of my mind to being as positive as ever that he will be up and running in a few days.
Tonight Sam is complaining about a lot of pain. He just told the nurse he experienced a wave of pain that shot through his entire body and felt like knives stabbing him. Now the pain seems to be focused in the hip area and feels like pins and needles. His pain level hovers around 8-9 which is rare for him. Normally it is about 4.
For those of you wondering, yes, I am eating - probably much more than I should. I also am getting out of the hospital for a few hours each day, continuing to work from Sam's room and then going home at night, returning early in the morning. If you have never had the pleasure of a hospital experience, in order to be present during the doctor's daily visit, you need to get here early and then practice patience because you never know when he or she is going to show up. No fault of their own since there are many patients to see, but this OCD person would sure appreciate a schedule.
q'ua
