Dan has been in the hospital 16 days.
He has received 19 units of blood during and after surgery, up to today.
From the date of surgery to about 7 days after, Dan gained 40 pounds of extra body fluid.
There are five new stretch marks on each knee due to the rapid swelling endured.
Right now, Dan is in the middle of dialysis treatment number 10.
Each dialysis treatment is 4 hours long.
Everytime Dan does dialysis, they remove about 3 litres of fluid from his body. (Then throw back in a pint of saline.)
Dan has the blood type O+, which means he can receive O+ and O- blood.
Dan is wearing sandals 3 sizes too big (due to the extra fluid swelling up his feet) just so he can walk around the hospital without wearing their silly slip-free socks with the happy face.
Dan does several laps around the recovery ward every day.
Doctors had to break 2 ribs to get to Dan's tumor.
He received 50 staples from armpit to belly button. The last 25 were removed today.
He's going to have 1 awesome scar. Ladies love scars.
Dan has gone from 4 tablets of hydromorphone for pain down to 0.
He still takes 2 extra strength tylenol whenever the hospital bed gives him a headache.
He's been given 3 sponge baths and 1 shower by his wife.
He's received countless foot massages.
He's been given one beard trim.
Every 6 hours nurses come by to draw blood to check his hemoglobin levels.
His hemoglobin level ranges between 70 to 90, low and high.
The average hemoglobin levels are 120 to 160, low and high.
I can count more than 10 puncture sites on just one arm.
He currently has 2 IV's in his other arm.
His heparin number dropped to 27 when they took out the IV for a bit today. (Which, as far as we can tell, is a good number if he wasn't supposed to be on blood thinners and didn't have a clot.)
If Maggie finds the cheap parking, she pays $10 for 10 hours. She does not always find the cheap parking. The Main Lot is $28.45 for 4 hours.
Maggie has been here 14 of the 16 days.
Sometimes, she drives 2 trips.
A trip back and forth from the house is 50km.
One trip costs $6.30 at the toll bridge.
A parking ticket (since resolved) costs $35. It is technically cheaper to get the ticket than to pay at the Main Lot.
Dan's mom and dad and sister have made the same number of trips and paid just as outrageously for parking, but their round trip home is 100km.
Dan has upped his data 3 times thanks to lack of useable WiFi in the hospital.
Maggie has upped her data 1 time.
Dan has been through 11 roommates since his move to room 314.
He's been seen by a rotation of at least 16 different nurses.
There are only 2 chairs in this entire hospital that Dan is comfortable in.
There is 1 garden to give Dan access to fresh air and no illegal smokers, and today they closed it.
There is 1 patch of hair missing from his right forearm where a nurse carelessly ripped off a bandage, and is the number 1 most distressing thing for Maggie to look at.
Number 2 most distressing are the bruises from the blood draws and IV lines.
And third, the 3 out of 10 job they did shaving his chest. Pretty sure the nurses and docs give zero cares about aesthetics when shaving a patient for surgery. But c'mon!
He has received 19 units of blood during and after surgery, up to today.
From the date of surgery to about 7 days after, Dan gained 40 pounds of extra body fluid.
There are five new stretch marks on each knee due to the rapid swelling endured.
Right now, Dan is in the middle of dialysis treatment number 10.
Each dialysis treatment is 4 hours long.
Everytime Dan does dialysis, they remove about 3 litres of fluid from his body. (Then throw back in a pint of saline.)
Dan has the blood type O+, which means he can receive O+ and O- blood.
Every time someone donates blood they donate 450ml, just over 1 pint or unit of blood. (Thank you, donors!)
Dan is wearing sandals 3 sizes too big (due to the extra fluid swelling up his feet) just so he can walk around the hospital without wearing their silly slip-free socks with the happy face.
Dan does several laps around the recovery ward every day.
Doctors had to break 2 ribs to get to Dan's tumor.
He received 50 staples from armpit to belly button. The last 25 were removed today.
He's going to have 1 awesome scar. Ladies love scars.
Dan has gone from 4 tablets of hydromorphone for pain down to 0.
He still takes 2 extra strength tylenol whenever the hospital bed gives him a headache.
He's been given 3 sponge baths and 1 shower by his wife.
He's received countless foot massages.
He's been given one beard trim.
Every 6 hours nurses come by to draw blood to check his hemoglobin levels.
His hemoglobin level ranges between 70 to 90, low and high.
The average hemoglobin levels are 120 to 160, low and high.
I can count more than 10 puncture sites on just one arm.
He currently has 2 IV's in his other arm.
His heparin number dropped to 27 when they took out the IV for a bit today. (Which, as far as we can tell, is a good number if he wasn't supposed to be on blood thinners and didn't have a clot.)
If Maggie finds the cheap parking, she pays $10 for 10 hours. She does not always find the cheap parking. The Main Lot is $28.45 for 4 hours.
Maggie has been here 14 of the 16 days.
Sometimes, she drives 2 trips.
A trip back and forth from the house is 50km.
One trip costs $6.30 at the toll bridge.
A parking ticket (since resolved) costs $35. It is technically cheaper to get the ticket than to pay at the Main Lot.
Dan's mom and dad and sister have made the same number of trips and paid just as outrageously for parking, but their round trip home is 100km.
Dan has upped his data 3 times thanks to lack of useable WiFi in the hospital.
Maggie has upped her data 1 time.
Dan has been through 11 roommates since his move to room 314.
He's been seen by a rotation of at least 16 different nurses.
There are only 2 chairs in this entire hospital that Dan is comfortable in.
There is 1 garden to give Dan access to fresh air and no illegal smokers, and today they closed it.
There is 1 patch of hair missing from his right forearm where a nurse carelessly ripped off a bandage, and is the number 1 most distressing thing for Maggie to look at.
Number 2 most distressing are the bruises from the blood draws and IV lines.
And third, the 3 out of 10 job they did shaving his chest. Pretty sure the nurses and docs give zero cares about aesthetics when shaving a patient for surgery. But c'mon!
Dan's Recovery page on YouCaring has been shared 470 times.
He's received $32,081 from 162 donors.
We owe a million thank you's to everyone.
Wow. That's a lot of numbers!
ReplyDeleteI applaud your bravery and dedication. Having been through cancer surgery and chemo last year (although much less demanding than what Dan is enduring), I have some understanding and perspective about what the last 16 days must have been like. If it is any small consolation, hospital parking in Halifax is shitty and expensive too! ;)
Give Dan a hug from me and know that you are both in my thoughts and prayers.
I am participating in the Ride for Cancer in September on behalf of the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society. We're aiming to raise $500,000 for cancer treatment and research. Knowing what you are going through is going to spur me on throughout my training and the 130km ride.
Fight hard Dumo and see you soon,
Nic
Thank you Nic! Best of luck on that ride. Do you have a link for donations?
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