What a day it's been at Duke University Health System. The term "roller coaster" quickly comes to mind. It started with a morning drive to the hospital on the traffic-clogged Durham Freeway, included a very unsuccessful walk in the hallway (interrupted due to the severe pain of a spasmodic bladder), several phone call attempts from friends and family that he simply wasn't coherent enough to answer, all interspersed with random moments of a very alert and talkative patient starting to seem like his old self, and ending with both Charlie and me pretty much tuckered out from one really long day.
Even though there were a few rough spots today, it was mostly a very good day. Patrick was headed back to Greenville early this morning, and he got to stop in and check on things before Kathy and I arrived. Nice that there was someone familiar there to start the day with. Kathy got me set up with her recently retired laptop PC (for you Mac fans out there, she's now one of you) in order to stay semi-connected to the outside world. I could probably have filmed one of those "Can you hear me now?" commercials featuring the contortionists, considering the the crazy repositioning I was trying so the hospital wireless signal would at least remain at "low" strength instead of "very low".
Charlie and the nursing staff made good progress on pain control, and we got to see our surgeon late this afternoon. That reminds me of an enjoyable moment with the doctor where one casual question about his involvement in an event at the hospital this weekend led to his sort of letting down his guard and venting a little about some frustrations of the day he had today. His comments started with, "Want to know what I've been doing today?" Don't get me wrong, it wasn't in a complaining spirit, just felt like he wanted someone else to understand what things are like from his side of the operating table. We felt a little privileged that he had felt comfortable enough with us to candidly speak "person to person" about things which had nothing to do with Charlie's particular case. Have we mentioned he's a really nice guy, and we really like him? :)
Another sweet moment occurred while we were taking one of the three very successful laps around the triangular-shaped hallway lined with patient's rooms. (Yes, there was that one pain-shortened stroll, but the other three attempts through the day were all good!) As we were in the homestretch of the final leg of the triangle, a man lying on the bed in his own room raised a "victory fist" as he saw Charlie shuffle past his door, and called out, "Keep going!" He looked like he was in the same age range as Charlie, which is a contrast to the mostly elderly patients on the sixth floor, and I stopped briefly to engage him. I asked how long he had been here, and he said they had removed a kidney this morning for cancer. I told him Charlie had his prostate taken out yesterday, also for cancer. I think seeing another "younger" guy on a similar road made him want to make some kind of contact. I think I'll see if Charlie feels up to a quick chat with him on one of his hallway circuits tomorrow. Who knows if we'll encourage him, or maybe the other way around?
And I had to fess up to the nurse (Ray, a really nice guy who I was glad to have helping Charlie in and out of the bed those first few times... how could one of those little bitty female nurses have ever managed to give him the supportive lift he needed?!) when he came around after lunch and again after dinner to record how much his patient had consumed that I had eaten more of the meal than had Charlie. He's done well with taking in lots of liquids, but he just hasn't had much of an appetite for solid food yet. Oh well, we're paying for it and it's going to be thrown away if someone doesn't eat it, right? As far as a review, the oven-baked chicken and seasoned potatoes were much preferred to the meatloaf, sort-of-dry mashed potatoes, and limp broccoli. I can't wait to see what "we're" having for lunch tomorrow!
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