Hospitalized

We were hoping that we could avoid the hospital. It would have been nice to have given it a pass, but hospitals sure are nice when you need them. John's kidneys have taken a dislike to the treatment they have been getting. One of his anti-rejection drugs is not very kidney friendly, and top that off with radiation, and all of those new cells that he got yesterday, well..... Just not happy. His creatinine levels are quite elevated and his uric acid and potassium is very high. He is not peeing either.

He will have to stay in the hospital until they get all of this stabilized. He may have to have dialysis for a little while just to give his kidneys a break. I have been told that this will not be a permanent thing. They are going to try to avoid that.

He did have a violent bout of vomiting this afternoon shortly after getting the dirt drink. They give him a horrible cocktail to reduce the potassium in his system. He burst some of the small blood vessels in his face doing this. Now he has to drink some more to replace what he threw up.

He is very tired. Yesterday was a long, long day, and we really did not get a full nights sleep last night.

Ordering meals is done very differently at this hospital. They have room service. You can order food whenever you want off of the menu which is bigger than most restaurants. You call the order in and it gets there within 45 minutes. You can order from early morning until 7:30 at night. I am thinking that maybe the patient gets billed, but I am not sure as there were no prices on the food. The hospital is nice and even the toilet paper is good. It is not the cheep scratchy stuff of back home.

I am feeling tired and stressed. It did not help things to have the taxi dispatcher yell at me and hang up on me because I did not know where to find the account number on the voucher I was given by the Cancer Alliance. The person on the phone was not only rude, but intimidating. It made me cry, but really it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. When I called back again I got a different person who was somewhat better, although by that time I had figured out the right information. The cab driver was appalled at how I was treated and gave me a number to call and complain. He was also mad because stuff like that can affect his livelihood. For my part, I really have better things to do than phone and complain, but I will do it for the driver's sake. He said that this is not the first time this has happened and if people phone it may get fixed.

O.K. I am tired. I am not going to edit this, well maybe tomorrow. Goodnight all.