Rather than wait until tomorrow morning, I'm typing up this post while he watches basketball! NBA finals! He never misses that.
The best news: his White Blood Cell count is back in normal range - it's a 7 as of this morning. This means his healing/recovery should pick up speed. Fingers crossed!
His mouth is feeling much better, although everything still burns some (and the rinse & spit meds still hurt a lot), and there no longer appears to be any blood. He's still pulling mucus from the lungs and suctioning that out, every once in a while, as he feels the need.
They are "feeding" him Glucerna via the feeding tube now, starting with a slow push that will be increased at regular intervals. He doesn't notice it at all. They also put his crushed pill meds in through the feeding tube, rather than him having to swallow them.
The Swallow folks had someone sit with him at lunch, work on good position for small bites of the pureed diet (as he can stand it) and a bottle of Ensure. He was very proud to tell me he'd drunk a whole bottle of the Ensure and eaten a couple of bites each of four of the piles of mush (more on that later).
They have moved him out of the PCU, but only to another room at the front of the unit, so he's still on the same floor with the ICU/PCU, nice and handy if anything goes funky. They moved him in his fancy, hi-tech bed, along with his drip feeds stand and his monitoring machine - just brought it all into the other area/new room. The nurse was able to push and maneuver that huge bed all by herself - I'm pretty sure there is a motorized assist, but it was still impressive. (He went from bed 16 to bed 4, right in the very front area of this section - sadly, no windows to the outside, but I'm glad it was an easier move than last time and that he's still close to the extra care if the need arises.)
Because he is getting more nutrition now, his blood sugar did go up, so they gave him a low dose of insulin, keeping an eye on everything. Wish I could say I was as confident in the nursing care as I was in the PCU. Although I didn't care for the nurse yesterday personality-wise, I didn't question she was on top of everything. The new nurse today just doesn't seem to focus on him quite the same way. But I can't say she's neglecting him. And when he hits the call button, someone comes within a few minutes.
I also happened to be here when the in-house Hematology/Oncology team came by. They work with his chemo doc, although they said they hadn't talked to him directly about future care yet. As for "pre-chemo labs" that Biff was scheduled to go in for tomorrow (in anticipation of a treatment on Monday), they will have those labs done here, for monitoring and reference, although he won't be doing another chemo treatment on Monday. They aren't yet sure if they will go ahead with the immuno therapy infusion either. All of that will depend on how he does over the next few days.
They were able to tell me that the PGx test was already done (they didn't say exactly what day, but it was probably on May 30th when Biff first told me they'd spoken to him about it). Those results can take up to two weeks, so there's a good chance a decision about exactly what kind of chemo treatment to try going forward won't be made for a couple of weeks. And, of course, we still need to get him back in fighting form anyway.
So, there's still all kinds of random things. Like his right arm is a little swollen, but they tell him that's okay, likely due to the steroid medication, nothing to worry about (so hard not to worry anyway). But generally, he's on the mend. Still hooked up to tubes every which way, but real progress is being made. He's still kinda ragged, can get a little confused, and his energy is still low. But he's doing much, much better.
Tomorrow, I won't be coming in the hospital until a little later in the afternoon (have my therapy appointment set for 10am tomorrow morning now, and a friend is coming to help me take care of a couple things at the house), so I will miss the Hematology/Oncology rounds in the morning, but they told me I can have the nurse page them to come give me an update. I'll do the same for the managing doctor, too. Get a final update from both before the weekend hits!
Around 5:30pm, his dinner arrived (and, yes, while they are also feeding him via the feeding tube):
Pureed Apple Cobbler - the one his spoon is hovering over in the picture: he ate a couple bites. Said it was not very good (his taste is still wonky, and pureed...?).
Pureed Brussel Sprouts - you couldn't pay him to eat a Brussel Sprout finely cooked and seasoned, let alone that pureed green mush, so no bites of that tried.
Pureed Mashed Potatoes with Mustard - mustard is another of Biff's no-go flavors. Can't stand it! So, no bites of that yellow mush either.
Pureed Chicken with BBQ Sauce - now BBQ chicken is a favorite, but he's avoiding BBQ sauces because of the burn from the spices. He did try a bite of just the chicken, but he said it was terrible. (I couldn't argue the point; I sure didn't want to try it - although he offered to let me eat as much as I wanted.)
So, he drank the bottle of Ensure and a little of the milk. Good thing they are also doing the feeding tube, right?
And one last thing, his new sketch on I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (on Netflix) is at the end of the 4th episode (although they don't show numbers on them). The name of the episode is "So, Now Every Time I'm About To..." and you'll see "Matching shirts at a school concert." in the episode description. It's a bizarre sketch, as they all are. LOL It's not as amazing as Crashmore, but that one was extra special. So cool that he was asked back. And this time he got to work with Tim Robinson directly! (There is even a raffle of some kind happening tied to this new sketch and the GoFundMe...?!?! "Gotta help a Shirt Brother!" The drawing will be tomorrow at an event in Seattle??? Too much for me to think about otherwise, but how amazing. So much love for my Funny Guy!)
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