Adam Update #2

It was a rough night. The plan was Taj would stay and I would go home, but when I figured out that Ethel, Fred and Lucy were the on duty nurses, I realized I couldn't leave. And good thing too. Adam spent most of the night in pain or asleep. He had morphine at 9pm, 1am, 5am and 7am. It took a lot of momma bear growling to get it done to. His actual nurse, Dulce, was ok. But at one point she was helping another patient and I went to the desk and said Adam is in pain and needs some morphine, Ethel and Fred looked at Lucy and said you get it. Ok, so I go back to the room and tell Adam it is on it's way. 5 minutes later no morphine, back to the desk go I and there's Fred and Ethel sitting there jabbering away. I repeated my request and Fred told me, Lucy is getting it. I made a comment about how slow she was being and walked back to the room. 5 minutes later, guess what, no morphine, I head back out to the hallway and encounter Ethel coming out of the room next door, she stares at me blankly and asks if I need something; Are you kidding me??? Yes I say loudly, I have requested morphine twice and non has arrived, oh she ponders, I think she is coming with it. Lucy emerges from a back room and Dulce is beginning down the hall. When she notices Lucy heading towards our room with morphine, she makes an inquiry, to whit we realize she is coming with the wrong dosage!

The orders were to check his vitals every 2 hours. I'm good with that, however, in between that 2 hours, someone else comes in and takes blood, then someone drains the catheater, then someone drains the fluids from his leg, and lo and behold it’s 2 hours and they are back for vitals. At about 2am I put a stop to all of that, I found out the blood schedule, since that is a mandatory schedule of every 6 hours, and that is what everyone else adjusted to as well, not every 6 hours but only coming when I called them or at the exact time needed. Vitals every 2, blood every 6 and others if needed. That worked out so that he and I actually got a straight shot of 2 hours sleep at a time.

This morning the doctor came and ordered an increased dosage of morphine and a new bed. It will be a trapeze bed, so that Adam can pull himself up and adjust his position if needed. It will be better in the long run, but of course all Adam is thiunking about is the dreading of moving into the new bed and the pain that will indure. I have promised him a pain killer right before the switch.

Now if I could only get him to eat, I think he would regain more strength and feel better sooner. But eating equals other things and not being able to move and being a teenage boy, you don't want someone to help you with that other thing. So for now it is just water and IV drip.

Maybe more later or tomorrow.

BTW he will be on this floor again today because of his pain level.