in the hospital

Friday started as a perfectly fine day -- altho I went back to sleep for two hours after Ben left for school.  I got some work done and did a number of errands, including returning dishes to two of the wonderful women who have been bringing us dinners.

Before dinner, though, I couldn't ignore that my arm felt hot and uncomfortable. So Bill helped me unwrap it and sure enough, it was swollen and red.  Because it was Friday night, we knew there would be a long wait at ER, so we decided to eat before going to the hospital on Broadway. So we did.

While my pain level wasn't that much when I arrived, three hours later when I was finally seen, I was curled up in fetal position rocking myself.  The ER doc didn't even unwrap the wound the whole way before he said he would be admitting me.  They gave me -- at last -- some pain meds but didn't start the antibiotics because the ambulance can't do the hospital's drip.  I needed an ambulance because the Broadway hospital didn't have beds so they needed to transfer me to the Foothills campus.

Even the ambulance ride was notable.  The driver stopped at a light and watched a car hit a pedestrian.  Being EMTs, they had to stop & assist.  Then, when the 2nd ambulance arrived, the driver was so rattled, he missed the turn for the hospital and all of a sudden, there I am giving directions from the back gurney (yes, University will take you back to Arapahoe).

The rest of Saturday morning was pretty ugly.  The first rule of pain management is don't get behind the curve.  Sadly, we had.  I think I finally slept between 6-8am.  Consequently, yesterday I was pretty pathetic. 

The infectious disease Doc is making the calls on my care.  I'm getting 5 infusions of antibiotics daily (2 different kinds).  His goal is to see enough improvement that I could go home tomorrow with oral antibiotics, rather than having to do infusions at home (ugh, we did that after Bill's 2nd knee operation and it's doable but a pain).  There was enough improvement today, though, that I think I will be able to avoid the worst case scenario he floated yesterday, which was surgery to remove the infection.  That's what my mom had to have after the back surgery that almost killed her a decade ago.

None of this should be a surprise, really.  All of the articles I read and the docs I talked to agree that wound complications are a greater risk for patients who have radiation therapy before surgery.  They still do the radiation then because it allows them to give a smaller dose than if it's done after, which means less damage to bones and other tissue, and because the results in terms of cancer are better.  They are willing to increase the likelihood of a bump in the road in terms of shorter term recovery, for the higher likelihood of getting the cancer and less long term damage.  Still, this sucks.