It all started when they decided to change the dressing on his PICC line site on his arm. This is the (urgh!) spot where the tube comes out of his arm and gets securely taped down. They use these clear latex patches to make the area as waterproof as possible and some tapes to keep it all secure. As if the things ever stick. Within 12 hours they're peeling up around the edges and collecting fur and lint.
Anyhow, they peeled him loose today (a few days early) and found his skin all red and swollen and ... yuck. That actually is what both the nurse and the doctor said. Yuck. Not a good sign, right? Well rather than risk an infection, since the other end of the tube is mere millimeters from his heart, they hooked him up to an IV of high-octane antibiotics.
Yes, it gets more fun. He had a reaction to the antibiotics. Probably because his system is all out of wack already. He got all puffy and red and ... you know that pointy curvy bit on the center of your top lip? ... his lips swelled up there for no apparent reason other than to make him talk funny.
So of course they doped him up with benadryl. By the time I got him home he was a zombie. I made him eat something (he hadn't even had breakfast), but the whole time I kept having to check on him because he had a fork and was practically falling asleep into his plate. Can you imagine me having to take him to the ER to remove a fork? I would never hear the end of it from his nurses for arming him with a pointed object in that state!
They also gave him a prescription for super crazy antibiotic pills. I am not making this up... the 14 day prescription would have cost $2,500 without our insurance's help. I kid you not. A total of 28 pills. In case you can't do the math in your head, that's about $90 per pill. I assumed they were made from illegal but fragrant and toxic plants on the highly endangered species list protected by a treaty signed by 194 of the major developed nations in the world. I had to look closely in case they each bore the signature of the master craftsman that hand assembled it over a period of three days in a Swiss watch-making studio ... but alas .. no tiny scrawl of Lars, Pedar or Claude were to be seen on the tiny pills. They were just freaking expensive.
He is currently exhausted and still zombified. I hope to at least get him rolling for a half-hour Saturday to go help celebrate (i.e. openly mock) a friend's big birthday. It is one of those big birthdays that end in '0' so there is bound to be drunkenness and over-eating happening. I won't try the guy birthday joke here (mostly because it's one that requires gestures), because I think my mom is reading this and she doesn't need any encouragement ... Mom! You know what I'm talking about!
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