Saturday, May 31, 2014

Day +1 Back in Isolation



Today Ryan was sick most of the day.  At one point, I was trying to help him take care of business on one end with my right hand, while holding the barf bucket up to his mouth with my left hand. I felt so bad for him. He looked completely miserable. He had a couple hours mid-day where he seemed to feel better, but later in the day it returned.

When he started to feel better in the AM, and wanted to ride a bike out in the hallway, a culture came back showing that he may have C-Diff, which is a contagious bacteria that can cause tummy troubles. Even Purrell will not kill it - you have to use the surgical scrub soap. It is somewhat common for transplant patients to get it because the chemo that destroyed Ryan's faulty bone marrow also destroyed healthy cells and the "good bacteria" in his stomach that would normally fight of the bad stomach bacteria. This has put us back in isolation until they get more test results back tomorrow afternoon. If the test is negative, we will be out of isolation. If it is positive, Ryan will get antibiotics and we will have to remain in isolation approximately 14 days.

Ryan got to be unhooked from his IV pole for 30 minutes today while he got upgraded to a larger double pole (normally, he is hooked up 24/7, even for showers and baths.) It's too bad he was in the bathroom getting sick during most of that time and wasn't able to enjoy some temporary freedom.

Capes 4 Heros visited today and let us pick out a super hero cape for Ryan. They wrote down the one we selected and then came back to the room about 10 minutes later with a big "R" sewn on it. Although Ryan originally declined a cape because he wasn't feeling good, I picked one out for him on their second pass around the unit, and it did make him smile when he got it. When I walked down the hall later, it was cute to see all the little bald chemo kids through the glass doors of their rooms playing with their capes on. (Note: although I am technically in isolation just because Ryan is, I am allowed to walk through the hall as long as I don't loiter or use any of the common areas.  Thank goodness, because Starbucks doesn't deliver.)

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