"I get by with a little help from my friends."

    Hi everyone, sorry i havnt blogged in the last couple of days.  On Thursday My best friend Daine flew in from Georgia.  She is a flight atendent and was able to catch a flight here to philly so she could see Dani and I for a couple days.  It was really nice to get to see her.   It perked up Dani's spirits. 
    Dani had been complaining about swallowing.  She seemed to be having a hard time with it and it seemed to be getting worse with each meal she tried to eat.  So we just cut her food into tiny peices hoping that it would get better as time passed.   We helped her get cleaned up and changed her sheets. She seemed to be eating less and less because of the swallowing issue. 
    On friday morning I called Dion to see how Dani was doing and he said she wasnt doing good at all ...that she had woken up with sweats and a headach and also sick to her stomach and nausia.  I think it was because the night before they took her off the pain medication drip and placed her on the pill form and was giving her too large a dose.  So I called her nurse right away and asked them to lower her dose but instead they changed it to percocet and Dani doesnt do well with that. (its even worse)  I tried to tell them but they wouldnt listen. All they needed to do was drop the dose of diludid down from 4 mil to 2 mil.
     Diane and I were out in the city making our way to the hospital and we stopped and bought Dani 6 new pairs of pretty sox and stopped at a fruit stand and got her some mango and pineapple.  When we got to the hospital we chopped it up and fed her some she ate pretty good but still had the swallowing issue and was still sick to her stomach and not really wanting to eat.  We went and bought her some chicken noodle soup but she wouldnt eat any.  Friday was just a bad day for her all around.  
    Then today when we arrived at the hospital she was still feeling sick to her stomach.  They still had her on the percocet and again i told them she couldnt tolerate that drug and it was making her sick.   Her swallowing issue was still going on too.  Diane and I got her to take maybe 3 bites of fruit but she didnt eat any lunch and she was drinking very little water. She said she felt like her food and meds wernt going down all the way. I was still worried about how much she was eating so I took Dion with me a couple blocks from the hospital and I bought Dani some really good potato soup and managed to get her to take about 5 good sips.  I was letting her nurse know all these issues and she said she would see if she could get a speech therapist over to listen to her swallow with a stethoscope and see if they could hear anything. (like food going down).   But didnt think they could get someone there till monday!!  That didnt sit good with me! 
   Meanwhile I made them listen to my concerns about the percocet and they changed her pain meds back to dilaudid 2 mil this time.  The nurse crushed her meds and put them in a spoon of apple sauce and then I managed to get Dani to eat most of the apple sauce.   I had been making her drink small sips of water all day to keep her hydrated because they had her back on lasix to reduce the swelling caused from the heart lung machine that she had been on during her surgery.  I didnt want her to get dehydrated.  WHEW!!!
    When I got back here to the house I called Dion to see how she was doing and he told me her pain was much better and she wasnt nausiated anymore since she was back on dilaudid and that she had actually for the first time today gotten up and taken a walk.  So im hoping that when I go in tomorrow she will have more of an apitite and we will get the swallowing issue figured out soon.  (she was swallowing just great after the surgery) .  Could just be a little swelling from the trauma to her trach from being intubated. Doesnt look like we will know much until monday. Oh did I tell you that somewhere between all that I walked Diane over to the train station (just one block from hospital)  and sent her on her way back to Georgia.  We did manage to have a nice visit even under the circumstances.  Shes been a good friend for about 30 years now.
    Its 10:27 pm here in philly right now I just called her nurse hoping to hear some good news about Dani before I sign off with all of you.   She told me that Dani did manage to eat some of her soup at dinner time and some mashed potatoes and they didnt have to crush her dilauid.  She managed to drink it down.  She isnt having the nausia that the percocet was giving her and seems to be feeling much better.  I just breathed a sigh of relief!   Hope you all did too!  Goodnight everyone.  Vel