Home from hospital

Bruce came home around 4pm yesterday.

We saw his surgeon who had returned from transplant conference in Boston- he ran in quickly to tell him to make sure if he bleeds again to get filters on the blood transfusion. Bruce in his drugged up state at least remembered that last sat. when they told him he needed blood. He refused it and then Tom called me called nurse to verify it was ok to have it if they did with filters. The reason is because its entering a foreign substance which makes body produce antibodies to fight it off and that would interfere with a transplant and make your body reject the new organ. The Surgeon also acted a little strange about us wanting to wait until August to have the Nephrectomy. But then he said if he doesn't bleed or have complications then he could wait that long.

We left hospital with RX for anti-nausea medicine and Potassium pills. I went to Target to get it and ended up waiting for over an hour. The Dr. from hospital did not write down the quantity of pills or days. The pharmacist called nurse, and nurse called back with a quantity but then changed the dosage so there was a discrepancy between the written RX and what nurse said on phone, so we had to wait some more. He and I both called the hospital and waited on the Dr. to get us the correct dosage. I got fed up and left with one of them, I thought it would be okay to wait and come back but they never got the call from hospital. I went back to Target this morning and he had to call again and ended up paging the Dr. to get this settled. This was just one more frustration and lack of urgency on the part of the hospital. I thought once we were out of there it would be over but they are still causing us issues. I don't want to be harsh on them because there has GOT to be a reason for such lack of care.

Meanwhile Bruce's blood pressure is dropping VERY LOW. He insisted on going with me but staying in car. He can barely stand up now, he is very dizzy. Blood pressure is 86/45 ! I called nurse and he is eating potato chips and drinking lots of fluid and has his legs raised up on bed. She thinks he is pulling too much fluid out of him and not eating enough to make up for it. He has only nibbled at food since he left hospital. BUT I have made sure he is eating high potassium foods. He had bananas and a baked potato. He took one of the potassium pills. If it is the fluid problem then it could take a day or more to get it better. If it is potassium causing the low blood pressure, it should come back sooner.

Kids are with parents right now having a blast at Chuck E. Cheese. We are supposed to keep checking his blood pressure every hour and he needs to keep eating handfuls of salty things and drinking liquids.

When he feels better, I will post on some GOOD news for once.... Bruce was interviewed by local news in hospital and they are coming to our house on Monday to film the family. :)