Jared got home from the hospital Thursday evening. That night a nurse came to show us the drill with the new antibiotics. He has a mid-line, which is still an IV, but this one only goes to his shoulder rather than all the way to his heart. She was trying to show me what to do (which came back really quick - I just never thought I'd have to do it again!), but we couldn't get the saline to go through the IV. She acted like she had never had that happen. Finally Jared pushed it really hard and it went through, but a few minutes later we noticed that his arm was bleeding where the IV was going in. It was about 10pm and I was not wanting to go back to the hospital!!! She luckily got everything under control (we think), but it took forever for her to get a complete list of Jared's medications, so she left around 11pm. I've calculated the pills, and he's now taking 27 oral pills, 2 stomach shots, and 3 IV injections every day. The IV bag has to be given every 8 hours, and it finishes after 2 hours, so we have to wake up twice at night, once to plug in the antibiotics, and another time to unplug the antibiotics and clean out his IV. Luckily we only have to do this for a week.
This is a new shot of Jared's head:
This is the first time he's had metal staples. I could've sworn they told me they'd be in for four weeks, but that doesn't make any sense. By that point the skin would heal up and they wouldn't be able to remove them, so I'm not sure. His incision line is different. It used to go straight back, straight across, and straight back again. Now it's more of an "S" shape. And I'm really wondering what the random slice is on the top right corner of the picture. It looks like the doctor just accidentally sliced his head with the scalpel! I guess it's not a big deal, but I'm trying to figure out why they wouldn't stitch it up? Hopefully it doesn't pull apart! Overall, I think everything looks okay.
I received a card in the mail a few days ago announcing the retirement of the neurosurgeon that performed the surgery two months ago, the one that placed the acrylic piece in his head, the one that was blowing him off a couple weeks ago. I think that's pretty, um... interesting.
Jared has pretty much been flat on his back since he got home from the hospital. He insisted that he was going to work yesterday. I told him I didn't think it was a good idea, since he hadn't even sat up for 10 days, but he went anyway. His brother took him at about 7:30am and I told him I would be waiting for the call to pick him up. He called me around 2:30, but he was completely out of it when he called. I asked where he was, and he couldn't get more than two words out to explain it, so I told him to email me the address. He said he had a minor seizure at work, which is what made him so incoherent. We've got to sit down and figure out a work plan. I really think he needs to file FMLA and just work as he can. He is obviously doing more than he can handle right now!
We have another MRI next week. I'm a little nervous for this one. He hasn't had an MRI in two months. And the last MRI was pre-Avastin. This one should give an indication on whether the Avastin is working or not. He is going to miss another dose on Friday because of this infection. I try not to think about it much. So I probably won't have much to say until then...
