This is the third evening in a row that Doug has spiked a fever. Always in the evening, never while he's in the clinic. He's still taking Tylenol for the fever, but liquid now.
Starting today he can't swallow pills, because of the pain in his mouth and throat. So his meds that he was taking by pill have been changed to IV. I will do some of them here at the hotel, because of the time schedule, some they will do at the clinic. At one time today the nurses were running three IV pumps to deliver all the meds.
He has just started wearing a fentanyl patch for pain, so hopefully that will help soon. Fentanyl is a narcotic pain med that can be delivered transdermally - through the skin. We also filled a prescription for Percoset which is another drug that the doc prescribed for "breakthrough" pain and is a pill, which I hope he can take tomorrow.
Doug is now considered medically "malnourished". He is well hydrated because of all the fluids but he needs to take in more calories. He has been sipping on Boost over ice chips and I hope that once the pain meds kick in that he can eat more.
Extra blood was drawn today for culture, because of the persistent fever. On exam, the doc heard a "slight rattle" in Doug's chest, so on the way home we had to stop at P/SL hospital for a chest X-ray. Won't get the results until tomorrow. I am torn between hoping they don't find anything, and wanting them to find whatever is causing the fever. Please pray there will be no pneumonia!
Doug had to wear a mask while we were waiting at the hospital. I just cringed every time someone walked in coughing into their hands and then touching everything. The world can be a scary place.
Denver had snow today - the TV weather people had made it sound like a huge blizzard was coming, and indeed for a short while it looked like it. So evidently many Denver businesses closed early -- by the time we were finished at the hospital the streets were clogged bumper to bumper with stop and go traffic. Streets were a bit icy but only a few inches of snow and no accidents that we could see. It took us almost two hours to get back to the hotel, a drive that normally takes 15 to 20 minutes. The highest speed we achieved was 15 mph; seems everyone wanted to change lanes. Ridiculous and so frustrating when Doug was not feeling well.
We are trying to keep spirits up and take things one day at a time. I found the following which is somehow comforting:
"Prayer is not escape; prayer is the way to conquest. Prayer is not flight; prayer is power. Prayer does not deliver a man from some terrible situation; prayer enables a man to face and to master the situation. When Jesus prayed that the bitter cup of the Cross might pass from him, that cup was not taken away from him. He had to drain it to its last agonizing dregs. But he was enabled to come through the Cross and to emerge on the other side of it in triumph. So often people pray to be delivered from a problem, to be rescued from situation, to be saved from a disaster, to be spared a sorrow, to be healed from a sickness, to be freed from a mental or a physical agony. Sometimes, it is true, that deliverance comes; but far more often the answer is that we are given the strength which is not our strength to go through it, and to come out at the other side of it, not simply as a survivor, but with a faith that is strengthened and deepened and a mind and a life and a character which are purified and ennobled. Prayer does not provide a means of running away from the human situation; prayer provides a way of meeting the human situation."
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