Pattern of the Days

It seems that Kay is determined to start our days with a big scare and finish them quietly. At least, this has been the pattern of the last days. Marion has proposed a solution to this apparent problem. She has determined that Kay doesn't like being left alone at night, so she's proposing to sleep on the plastic garden chair in Kay's IC room.

I'm dead set against this idea, Marion is already on her nth pair of last legs and losing more sleep seems to me likely to result in me ending up with two patients. (Sorry, but this time I am thinking of myself). At the moment we have reached a compromise which is that she will stay with Kay until midnight and then come to bed. But do I trust her? Hmmm... We'll have to see.

Kay is stable with reasonable blood gas figures. Feeding into her small intestine has now reached a volume where intravenous feed has been stopped. Due to the heparin used to protect the dialysis filter, Kay has developed some very nasty looking hematomas (bruises/bleeds) on her body. The heparin has now been stopped, so it is likely that the dialysis filter will quit shortly. When this happens, dialysis will be stopped and we'll see whether Kay's kidneys can do the work. So far they have been doing a good job the last days.

The most bone marrow toxic medications were stopped yesterday in preparation for the bone marrow boost. This should also help her bone marrow to recover more quickly. The risk is that the CMV virus will gain ground, but we think that the alternative medication worked better anyway (but I'm learning that I'm wrong about 95% of the time with these kinds of things).

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Tonight is an exciting night. By special arrangement we can sleep in real beds. I'm hoping to count a lot more sheep... and spend more time with Kay in my dreams.