today's update

Ricky 4-7-09
Originally uploaded by Beckerbuns

Ricky called me several times today, wondering when I'd be up to visit him. :) I was at work, but only for four hours, and was anxious to get up to the hospital. I did have to go to an appointment after work, but as soon as that was done, Andrew and Misty and I made the drive and visited Ricky. I brought along a wireless controller for the PS2 in his room, which was nice so we weren't tripping over the cord constantly. I also brought a memory cartridge so he could save his game progress.

Healthwise, Ricky is doing okay. His sinuses finally seem a lot better. He has been on the IVs more than expected because he is not drinking (and therefore, peeing) enough. While I was there the nurse did tempt him to drink a whole carton of chocolate milk and a little container of lemonade with the promise that she would hep-lock him. It worked!

He is also not eating well. The other day, and I am not sure whether I mentioned this, I brought a bunch of his favorite foods to the hospital so that he would eat more. These included:

rice (to be eaten either with sugar and milk or with soy sauce)
blueberries
strawberries (to be dipped in sugar)
sliced apples (to have peanut butter spread on them)
vanilla yogurt (his favorite flavor)
salt and vinegar potato chips
licorice
Pringles in various flavors
a warehouse store-sized jar of giant dill pickles

So far he has eaten part of one pickle, about half of the rice (with sugar and milk), both cartons of blueberries (with the help of his siblings), all of the strawberries (again, with Andrew and Misty's help), and most of the salt and vinegar chips (yeah, we all helped with that!).

His eating is still not great. At home he eats pretty well except when he's sick. I hope we can correct this trend.

A couple of other things to note... On Sunday night the lab tech came in to take blood for a tobra level from Ricky after he was already asleep. Ricky was apparently very upset about this and pitched a fit. I guess the staff handled it because I didn't hear about it until Ricky told me the next day. He was mad that they didn't draw the blood out of his port. Well, the reason they can't do that is that the sample would be contaminated, since the tobra is infused through the port. A Monday morning test was done with a finger prick rather than a veinous draw and Ricky was a lot more amenable to that.

Yesterday Ricky also went for PFTs (pulmonary function tests). I don't know what the results were but I'm going to ask the nurse tomorrow, along with what else is going on with him and if anything has changed in his treatment/discharge plan.

Guess that's about it for now! I want to thank all of you who have sent Ricky the virtual-actual cards. The volunteer who brings them to him (several times a day due to the volume!) has remarked that Ricky gets more than any other patient. Keep it up! He is enjoying the attention! :) If you want to send one of these free cards, as a reminder you can do that here and his name is Richard Whicker. Tomorrow I think I'll post a list of all of the card-senders' first names so you know we got your cards! :) You guys rock!

Goodnight!