Day Thirty Nine

2:59 PM

Don was napping when I arrived this morning. I was so tired last night that I didn't update the blog and never had a chance before leaving the nursing center. We were told yesterday afternoon that Don's incision culture came back positive for infection and that he would have to start an antibiotic by I V (which means the pick line won't get to come out on Tuesday). When he asked about it Thursday, they told him it was negative. What he didn't know to ask was if it was still in process. Which the answer would have been yes. As I remember from the hospital, they check these things over a period of days. It had only been 48 hours since the culture was taken. So the answer was negative for that period of time, but it was still in progress. Don sat up about 4 hours yesterday and another friend/co-worker came by to visit. All the kids came by after Donnie Lee got off work. We did Christmas from Don's parents and my parents since Taylor is going back to school today. After the kids left about 6:30 or so Don felt a wet sensation all over his clothing. As we were changing him, I noticed that there was a puddle of fluid standing by his right side. It was awful! His sheet, pillowcase, shorts and T-shirt were all soaked. The CNA had me to get the nurse and about 3 other nurses came to his room. The best we can determine, after checking his incision, he had a blister on the right side at the end of his incision and it burst and that infection started to drain. They began to push gently on his stomach and more of the infection drained. They bandaged the incision and got him dressed for bed. He snacked and watched the Panthers game until about 9:15. I set his oxygen and went home about 9:30. Don said about 4:30 they had to change the dressing again as it had soaked through his night clothes. He ate a great breakfast this morning and napped until almost lunch time. I checked his incision before lunch and it was beginning to show up on the bandage so the nurse came in and took the bandage off. She had the wound care nurse come to take a look at it and he has more blisters on the left side. The wound care nurse said she thinks that the infection is sitting in a little "pouch" on the left side of his navel where those other blisters are. Any pressure at all and sometimes no pressure causes the infection to drain. We have to keep an eye on it quite often so that it doesn't drain through to his clothes. They will check tomorrow to see if he can be seen by the doctors tomorrow instead of Tuesday. After they changed his dressing he was just sitting in the bed and I looked up and he was crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said he guessed he was just in one of his moods. Don asked to get up in his Gerichair about 2:00 although he was very nauseous. We aren't sure if it is the infection or the antibiotic that is causing his sickness. They were able to get him up about 2:45 and we are sitting in the lobby of the center at this time. It is now 3:36 and Don has been napping. I don't know if he will make it four hours like he did yesterday and I don't know if I should encourage him too since he feels bad. Just keep praying for all of us! We are all beginning to wear down again. Don is feeling that the infection may set him back and he won't be able to get home as quick as he has planned.