Around the Hospital

Now we know that Demerol is very good, and it makes Dave very funny.

After the first round of Demerol finally gave him some relief from the pain Saturday morning, Dave told the nurse, “Now, I’d like to air some grievances.” Then he blabbered out some nonsensical things about the morphine that didn’t work and the food tray that should not have come to his room. He was very serious and he made no sense at all. I giggled freely while the nurses tried not to. That’s a perk of being the wife.

“He scared me last night when he grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go.” That’s what the tech told me in the hallway after she encountered Demerol Dave in the middle of the night while trying to take his temperature. He really was not going to let go. I had to intervene.

In response to Dave telling her that he wasn’t taking the Demerol anymore, the night nurse said, “Oh, that’s too bad. You were kind of entertaining.”

He stuck to oral pain medicine after the first day.

Know what else is good? Thorazine. It stops hiccups. For real, people, they have a drug that stops hiccups. I only wish they’d given it to him sooner, but whatever, at least he got to sleep last night. Valium and Phenergan helped, but they kept coming back until he had Thorazine.

We’ve been here a full week now, and there have definitely been ups and downs. I think the biggest ups are when we get to sit outside for a few minutes and when we see the kids. They get so excited. So do we. The first day they came to see us when we had to meet them in the waiting room (because they weren’t allowed in the room), Luke was waiting outside the hall door and he started yelling, “Daddy! Daddy!” We parked Dave’s chair in the waiting room to play, and then we had to go back to the room for a few minutes to see the doctor. When we came back, Luke greeted us at the door again and escorted us back to the waiting room where he patted the floor so we would know where to park him. He wasn’t finished with Daddy yet.

Yesterday, Dave didn’t feel well enough to go to the waiting room, so I went by myself. Once Luke had loved on me for a minute, he took me by the hand and pulled me to the door, telling me, “Daddy!” I explained that Daddy wasn’t coming because he was taking nap. He tried twice more to run through the door and down the hall before I could get him. Today, we have a new room and the kids are allowed here. They came for a couple of hours and Luke had to get right up on the bed with Dave and talk about his incision: “Daddy. Bo-bo?” He needed to see it. Dave showed him and he was quite impressed.

Ella, upon seeing that we had hung up the penguin picture she made, said, “Oh, you put up your penguin. That’s so cute!” She had a project for Dave today. They shared the rolly table and colored a princess. She also writes him a note on his board when she’s here. She has been such a trooper through this experience. Her gracefulness right now is absolutely God working because she is completely out of her normal routine, and she is a child who needs routine.

As for Dave, we got verbal confirmation last night that his cancer is lymphoma. It’ll still be another day or so before we know what kind. I have to be perfectly honest and say that having that oncologist stand in the room and talk about PET scans and chemotherapy made the whole cancer aspect of this situation very real for me. I had a moment. I found the little chapel downstairs and cried myself dry. I came back to the room and told Dave I was freaking out, and from his sleepy haze he said, “Go wipe your worries on the spot.” I did it, then and a few more times, and I’m much better today. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but for now we are just trying to get home.