Tuesday was spent hanging out at Riverbend hospital for my dad’s blood transfusion. What a LONG day! We arrived at 10am and he was locked in until almost 7pm. We were located some where back in the rabbit warren behind ER or so they said. They did have a comfy bed for him to rest in and they gave him the choice to either put on a hospital gown or stay in his clothes. Why would you even offer a gown? Those things are a pain! The clothes stayed on.
After type casting his blood and having the lab send down the WRONG type of blood (yes, all those coded wrist bands really do come in handy. I’m so glad everything is checked so well by the nurses prior to administering blood), blood flow commenced! Previous transfusions had lasted about 2.5hrs per bag. This go round averaged a tad over 3hrs per bag. They gave him a dose of Tylenol and Benedryl to counter any body rejection. A nice added side effect from the Benedryl is drowsiness! He spent most of the first bag sleeping. Before administering the second bag, an injection of lasix was added. For bag 2, he spent his time going back and forth to the bathroom.
Kim (my sister) and I shared the day together. I took Lee in and kept him entertained until lunch. Kim arrived bearing gifts of Thai food, Lee’s lunch had just arrived, good blood arrived at the same time. Wow! What a lunch party! It’s a good thing the sight of blood doesn’t bug any of us. It’s really quite a beautiful thick liquid they feed into his body. After lunch, Kim and I escaped to the grounds for a nice walk along the McKenzie river and a coffee break before heading back in.
Today, the 4th, I’ll head down, get him a little lunch and hang out for the afternoon. We need to keep tabs on how his body reacts to this new blood. Fingers crossed that he doesn’t have problems. He will also start round 2 of antibiotics to continue fighting the pneumonia.
I learned yesterday that my mother-in-law will undergo a mastectomy on next Monday for her breast cancer. Seems like a good plan of action. My grandmother had one later in life as well. Zoe always kept her extra tissues in the empty bra cup.Such a handy spot! Maybe L could keep her phone there! That way she might actually HEAR it ring!
A big happy birthday to Alex & Kirsten. I can’t believe they came into the world 27 years ago.
An early happy birthday to my uncle Hal who’s birthday is tomorrow!
A belated birthday wish to Lucille who was on the 3rd.
🙂
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