So I got out of the hospital today. I ended up getting a drain put in that was removed just yesterday and kept draining out a few hundred ml of fluid every day. I’d have been free of the hospital sooner but the rate of draining was higher than they expected so they had to wait. They also cut a permanent hole in the wrapper around my heart so that all future fluid will drain into my chest and hopefully be absorbed by the membrane of the chest that encases everything; one of its functions is drainage. This is apparently a really common procedure but still a bit odd. You would assume since the sack exists around the heart it’s probably very important but apparently they leave them open whenever they do heart surgeries and they don’t see ill effect. I’m slightly worried that if there is cancer in the fluid then it will spread through my chest but they insist it won’t spread like that.
The stay itself was very boring with no real internet access and a broken TV remote. Luckily a friend bought me a universal remote to fix the second part at least. I slept a lot and did little else. The nursing staff was mostly good, not the best I’ve had but certainly not the worst. I did have a very worrying issue however. They almost killed me because of a typo. My meds said to take .75ml (75million units) but the conversion is actually .75=7.5million units. They tried to give me 10 times the dosage (7.5ml) because they chose to follow the units measure rather than the ml measure. I knew this was wrong right away but I almost believed the nurse when he told me it was probably just a different concentration; which could make sense. But instead I called Katie and had her tell me the concentration we have in the fridge at home. So I can’t say for sure that 10x my dosage would have killed me but it is far beyond what further research suggests a human use and it would most likely have caused multisystem organ failure such as kidney, liver, and pancreas. Even with my normal dose it turns out my pancreas numbers spiked and I got a 103.2 degree fever. It worries me a bit how easily that could have killed me. Also slightly worrying right now even though I’m taking the interferon every other day the spots in my neck are a bit touch sensitive, not outright painful but it’s still not a good sign. I may have to look into adding radiation or some new drug soon.
Anyway I’m flying home Thursday. My mom flew down to take care of me in the hospital and help me return to Seattle. I’m looking forward to being back home and seeing everyone up there. I’ve been sad that I was delayed so long returning to see my ferret; she is so new to us that I’m worried she’ll not remember me and think Katie and Lizzy are her owners. Anyway I have gotten reports that she is mostly doing well and that Lizzy loves her so that’s awesome. I hope to play with Lizzy and Yuki together asap. That’s about it for now; haven’t been up to much since I’ve been lying in the hospital bed this whole time. I’ll leave you with some pics Katie has sent me of Lizzy.
Posted by jeffstonepsi 
