This Machine Killed Cancer

Today is a blur. I’m losing track of time, but I pretty sure that all of the following happened today:

Shayne broke a fever for about 10 hours which means this infection is heading in the right direction - out the door. Huzzah!

There was a worry that there might not be enough platelets and then it changed to him being on an almost constant slow platelet drip - this still didn’t bring him to a safe level, but it prevented him from bleeding out during surgery. 

Shayne had to go to the dentist (yup, you can go to the dentist in the hospital). An xray and an exam showed that he has an impacted wisdom tooth that might have been the cause of the infection. As an added bonus, the dentist cut his gum and it wouldn’t stop bleeding for the entire afternoon.

Once he got back upstairs, he found out he was NPO (nothing by mouth) even before he could get to his lunch because they were prepping him for surgery.

The surgery to remove both his port + central line took a couple of hours, but it was successful. Hopefully now the infection will calm down, but Shayne says it feels like he was attacked by a shark.

We had almost a normal dinner with Shayne’s brother, dad, and his dad’s wife. There was laughing, talking about gadgets, planning out bike trips once we’re done with this hospital mess and for a short period of time Shayne wasn’t even attached to Stan.

After everyone left, Shayne’s pain got pretty intense, so he got some pain meds, I sang a little lullaby and talked about the beach while the white noise machine played rain sounds. I’m pretty sure this finally put him to sleep. If anyone wakes him up, I’m going to turn into a mama bear and/or barricade the door. (Update: someone did wake him up, and I’m pretty sure that guy is not coming back tonight. He’d probably be okay if he didn’t have to see me again at all.)

Now I suppose it’s time for me to get some sleep. I’m wired, but these rain sounds seem to be working its magic on me too.

Moral of the day: Wisdom teeth = stupid idea. Can I fill out a complaint card?

Also, never trust a shark when he says he just wants to give you a hug.