Saturday 12 December 2015

Day 44 of hospital stay: Back on 8th!

Not much happened today except for family visiting and that I'm back up on the 8th floor! Hurray! This will be another quick update as once again I'm quite sleepy but then again I'm getting yet another blood transfusion so it'll keep me up for a bit (I've lost count at this point how many I've had).
It was an ordeal to get me up to the floor.

My kidney numbers were down to acceptable (although not ideal) but the floor wouldn't take me with my arterial line in but for that, no one would pull it until my platelets improved (platelets help clotting)  I wasn't down to the level that the hematology team would start transfusion but I was low enough that the general medicine doctor didn't want his resident pulling out any lines.

So I had the transfusion which took about an hour (did you know platelets are a orange colour? Also, serious thank you to everyone who donates blood, I've used so much of it lately), the line was pulled which took about a half hour as the resident insisted he apply pressure for 20 minutes even though I didn't bleed much at all. I bleed more the day before when the nurse took out my little IV line. Clearly bleeding out is a much larger concern in general medicine.

Once that was done, I was ready to go. Except that I wasn't because the person on the 8th floor hadn't moved yet. So for about two hours, the IMCU frequently called 8A asking when the bed would be ready while the ICU called the IMCU asking when the bed would be ready. And I'm sure the post-op people or the ER was calling ICU as frequently wondering when there person could leave. Eventually, IMCU told the ICU to call the 8th floor and figure it out themselves.

That seemed to have done the trick as I was soon thereafter whisked up to the 'swing bed' on the 8th floor. It's basically the bed that they keep empty for emergency cancer patients. It must happen enough that they feel they need a bed on standby at all times. But since their other patient was indeed planning on leaving at some point during the day, they determined it was okay to have a few hours overlap. So now that other patient's room is considered the 'swing room' and I'm all settled in at the end of the hall.

It's not as nice of room as the BMT unit but compared to the ICU and IMCU, no complaints from me. I can have two visitors without them having to crawl over each other; I have space for more than one small bag; I have an actual bathroom instead of a commode; I have a door I can close. All pleasant things. The only downside is that I'm at the end of the hall so the wifi is really iffy. I guess I'll be spending the next few days reading, listening to podcasts, and colouring instead.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"there are no small victories, only small steps in a journey. Every advance, no matter how small, should be celebrated to the fullest."... - so glad to hear you have a room of your own again! and a bathroom etc. hugs and thanks for the update... been thinking of you a lot today. hugs and good night...